TW: this article discusses suicide, self-harm, and domestic abuse.
This week, Channel 4 released a film about the late Caroline Flack and her life in the years preceding her death. It contains a series of emotional interviews from her loved ones who discuss her struggles behind the cameras. It showed that Flack had struggled for a long time with mental health which was only exacerbated by the way she was treated by the media. This film, combined with current events, further raises concerns about the media’s treatment of celebrities.
In 2019, Caroline Flack seemed at the peak of her career. She was presenting Love Island, one of the UK’s biggest TV shows, and was one of the UK’s biggest stars. This somewhat perfect image came crashing down however, after she was charged with assaulting her boyfriend on 13 December 2019. Flack was ripped apart for this by the media and headlines like “CAROLINE WHACK!” were broadcasted everywhere. Two months later, she took her own life.
This film revealed that Flack’s personal life was certainly less glamorous than it may have appeared. Her mother spoke about Caroline’s previous attempt to take her own life as a teenager and that there was always a fear that she might resort to something like that again. Caroline desperately tried to hide her struggles from the media and I don’t think many people were aware of how much she struggled. She was also a regular victim of abuse in tabloids and on social media, which likely fed into her suffering mental health. Her friends discussed how unfortunately “her rise to fame coincided with the rise of social media” and it provided a whole new world of opinions and criticisms, one that celebrities weren’t quite prepared for.
She became addicted to scrolling through Twitter…to the detriment of her mental health. Consequently, she became even more self-conscious and insecure, which wasn’t helped by her unpopularity as an X-Factor presenter and her involvement in a few controversial relationships. Her personal problems were always something she struggled with privately but it seems that she really loved her career, despite how damaging it might have been for her, and was desperate not to let her personal life ruin it.
“The relentless abuse in the media would only have made the entire situation harder.”
Unfortunately, her arrest in December 2019 seemed to be the beginning of the end for Caroline. She was stripped of her career, reputation, and privacy. Graphic photos of her apartment were published and the press waited to photograph her wherever she went. We’ll likely never know what happened in that apartment that night and speculation isn’t helpful, but it was revealed that the blood in the photos was from Caroline harming herself rather than as a result of abuse which is what the media assumed. As I said, we’ll never know the whole story and I’m not excusing her actions, whatever they may be, but evidently Caroline was in a really dark place and the relentless abuse in the media would only have made the entire situation harder.
Cancel culture is a really difficult aspect of social media to navigate. On the one hand, people should be held accountable for their actions and those with a platform have a responsibility to be good role models. However, on the other hand, it’s easy for the media to forget that these are real people. Many ‘normal’ people will have made mistakes that might have got them ‘cancelled’, the only difference being that their mistakes aren’t broadcast for the world to see. An abuse court case is naturally a very sensitive and emotionally consuming situation for all of those involved, which, combined with the opinions of the whole of Twitter, would only make it even harder. In the interview, her mother said that maybe someone else might have handled it all but it was too much for Caroline. But I’m not sure that many people could.
“Having every aspect of your life picked apart by people who have no real idea what’s happening is incredibly harmful.”
After reflecting on all the tabloid abuse that likely contributed to Flack’s death, you would hope that the media might realise the possible consequences of their actions. Alas, unfortunately, one year later, it appears that nothing much has changed. Oprah’s recent interview of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry revealed that Markle was so affected by the relentless media abuse that she started having suicidal thoughts. Having every aspect of your life picked apart by people who have no real idea what’s happening is incredibly harmful. It once again begs the question as to whether the media is out of control and how they seem to be repeatedly damaging countless individuals and suffering no consequences.
This film unveiled Flack’s long-term battle with mental health, both from her personal life and as a result of media abuse. Evidently, her life was far from perfect and unfortunately suicide was something she had considered before. However, it would seem that it was the media’s relentless pursuit of her following her arrest that was the final straw and led her to take her own life. The media cannot be entirely blamed but we must try to remember that celebrities are humans too. Some of Flack’s actions may not be justifiable, but nobody should ever be made to feel that they need to take their own life, no matter what they have done. And sadly, if nothing is done to change the behaviour of certain tabloids and social media sites, there will unfortunately be many other victims in the future.
If you, or anyone you know, is struggling with issues mentioned in this article, support is available:
Samaritans: Call 116 123 or click here to go to their website.
Shout is a crisis text line. Text ‘SHOUT’ to 85258.
Refuge is a 24hr National Domestic Abuse Hotline. You can call them on 0808 2000 247.
Ella Gilbert
Featured image courtesy of duncan c on Flickr. Image license can be found here. No changes were made to this image.
