The whole thing is a sorry mess. I do think it's desperately sad and shocking that anyone feels driven to take their own life, and I think that's the case regardless of how good or bad a person was.
What I have not liked is the way this has been treated after her death, mostly by other celebrities and public figures, who are whipping up a frenzy of blame towards the media, 'online trolls', the CPS, the Police etc. I don't believe the media or trolls 'killed her.' She was clearly a very troubled figure. She had been in the public eye, she knew how the circus works. Does it make it right for people to troll online, or for the media to write salacious and overblown nasty stories? No absolutely not. But she could choose not to engage in that space - you don't need to look at social media, or read the papers. And whilst I think that being needlessly cruel or spiteful to someone is absolutely awful - I don't think that means people shouldn't be called out for their behaviour, or protected from criticism just because they are in the public eye - in fact I think it's important that they are.
I believe the problem is not the 'media' or Love Island or ITV (and by the way I also don't think there's any evidence that ITV treated her differently to Ant McPartlin - they both 'stepped away' from their roles, and statements were made that she would be welcomed back. Not to mention that in a normal role if you were charged with assault then you'd probably be sacked outright. She, of anyone, had more support, and also many more resources to get help for herself than most people.) There is a problem with celebrity culture. People who achieve fame get extremely heightened levels of adulation - from their fans and also those who surround them - their managers etc. They're cosseted and kept in a bubble, where I believe they become addicted to the attention, but also start to lose touch with reality, and believe their own hype. That blinds them and makes them unable to cope with criticism, and of course the nasty underside of trolling makes it also easy to dismiss any negative commentary as 'nasty trolls.' So instead of living in a balanced world in the middle, it becomes a world of extremes where they're only able to accept the 'positivity bubble' as their reality.
Then when you're in that heightened, superficial circle, they're desperate to hang on to it and terrified of losing it - no wonder so many turn to plastic surgery, crazy diets - and of course drink and drugs.
And the circus that has happened since she died just continues the cycle. The hypocrisy is rife. I saw Amber from Love Island 2019 post a 'heartfelt tribute' to CF on her Instagram stories - she's devastated, heartbroken etc. Then just a few hours later she posts a picture of a gift she's been sent by a PR company 'thanks soooo much, this has really cheered me up'. Clearly she then got a hard time over it because her next story was super defensive and saying that the people criticising her were the problem and the reason CF killed herself. Absolutely zero self reflection on the appropriateness of posting about a freebie and stating that it's 'cheered you up' when someone you apparently considered a friend has just died.
And the same is true of many others, who are all posting as if this is an external occurrence caused by others, and only because people were mean - rather than acknowledging that she clearly had a lot of difficulties.
Yes it's very sad that she committed suicide, but that doesn't make her a saint. And I don't for a second think that people should be slating her in the aftermath of her death, but I also don't believe they should be rewriting history, painting her as a perfect individual who was forced to her death and who shouldn't have been accused or charged with the crime, just because she was famous, or because she had MH issues.
Where do you even stop then if that becomes your argument? You start to create a world where famous people are above the law, or people can get away with committing terrible crimes if they are at risk of self harming. Or that people should not be called out or criticised for their actions. There needs to be checks and balances on everything. If I was to change that 'be kind' quote, I would replace it with 'be fair.' And fair means a reasonable balance - people should and need to be called out on poor actions, but should they be trolled, bullied and lied about? No.
