Caroline Flack

[tagliatelle]

I agree. To a point. But how do you keep on babysitting a 40 year old woman with severe m/h issues who refused psychiatric (and even medical) help especially when you have your own family, life, responsibilities etc and live far away? It’s impossible. I truly believe her Mum needs some intensive therapy to address her grief and guilt rather than sanction a public documentary that looks like it may vilify friends who it seems went over and above several times. Such a sad situation.

CF was destined to do one thing which was to take her own life. The method in which she did it gave her no opportunity to backtrack. It was not a cry for help. It was infinite. That speaks the volumes it needs too for her loved ones to accept it and try to move on with their own lives. No matter how devestated they are.

This, basically. The only difference between Caroline’s mum and every other parent bereaved by suicide is that they don’t have the option to make a tv show to talk about their grief. It sounds terrible; but even if her friends said, “Yeah, we left her to die because we couldn’t be bothered to look after her”, what does it achieve for her mum? It doesn’t bring her girl back.

 

[Katienana]

I dont think that, as a parent, she has to be objective about her daughter. But keep it private! The problem is the media exploiting someone's grief, stirring up emotions, and because it is so emotive they can't exactly ask any tough questions. Just like Carolinevwas too fragile and unstable to be in the public eye, her mum shouldn't be either. The absolute irony of it all, learnt nothing from a really sad situation.

 

[Sandyclaws]

That could have been done in 1 part not 2. Totally strung out. Couldn’t really see anything new that hadn’t already been confirmed or speculated on. Lou Teasdale has been completely airbrushed out of Caroline’s story.

Lou who gave more of herself than she should ever have had to? At the cost of spending time with her own daughter? Thats fucking gratitude isnt it

 

[Sparkly23]

My 2 cents FWIW - after the initial suicide attempt when she was in the thick of the scrutiny, they should have thrown absolutely everything at getting her into a proper healthcare institution where she would have been looked after and observed 24/7 and gotten round the clock therapy and medication. They could have framed it as total protection from press and it wasn't like she didn't have the money to cover it. Like Winehouse 10 years before, everyone around her and of course she herself was WAY too wrapped up with protecting the cash cow and the celebrity name - in that level of crisis, if that was my daughter or best friend - fuck that. They obviously all knew she was a ticking timebomb and were seriously worried she might succeed in taking her own life. This worshipping of celebrity is an albatross everyone falls for - so you're in the papers sometimes. Is that really worth protecting if someone is leaning over the edge?

 

[thegrumpos]

The inquest concluded that she likely killed herself because she could not face the media backlash, the bad publicity etc.

That is not the same as the media being responsible for her death.

her inability to cope with the media (in relation to her own actions) due to BPD / mental health issues / ongoing vulnerability is the reason she killed herself.

 

[Gee_whip]

Caroline’s mum taking part in the Sun awards ceremony and now deciding she was being used makes me very cynical 🫠 so the tabloids were the demons all along but you partnered up with the Sun to present an award but you “weren’t thinking”. I know she was grieving but wouldn’t you avoid anything to do with the Sun when they printed material you felt contributed to your daughters death she obviously knew she’d have to address it in the documentary and had a prepared story about feeling used…

 

[LadyWeatherwax]

Someone correct me if I’m wrong but think under UK law you can’t just change your mind and withdraw charges even if you want to. That’s not how it works

There's actually no such thing as pressing charges in the UK (or US, despite what most people think). You just report a crime. The police investigate, if they feel there's enough evidence, they pass it to the CPS. If they think there's enough evidence and prosecution is in the public interest, that's that.

If someone withdraws their evidence, it can sometimes stop a prosecution, because if only two people are involved there might not be enough evidence to go ahead. If the CPS still feel it's in the public interest, they've got enough evidence to go ahead, or that prosecution should happen for the safety of the complainant, you're basically SOL.

Truthfully, that they were going to go ahead with this tells you everything you need to know. IIRC correctly, when the police turned up he was bleeding from the head and Caroline admitted to hitting him with an (apparently now disputed) object. Of course they charged her. Apart from the fact they had a bleeding man and a woman admitting she hit him, can you imagine the shit storm if they didn't charge her but he was seriously hurt at a later date?

 

[Marshallmum1982]

I’m not going to watch it because I think it deserves to sink without trace. It’s not a documentary, it’s an editorialised rewrite based on what Christine wants the public to think. And sharing private things which even people who didn't know Caroline think cross a line in order to do that is very low.

Sadly I think you're exactly right. The one that C4 did a couple of years ago showed that Caroline had always struggled with her mental health and was a lot more balanced. After hearing Lou Teasdale taking about it, I dont think I could bring myself to watch it when her and her Dad and a lot of her friends were airbrushed out of the whole situation (didn't some of them not attend her funeral??)

 

[Be More Pacific]

Giving evidence via videolink, Mollie Grosberg explained why they avoided calling the police, and expressed her frustration over Caroline refusing to go to hospital.

She said: “We were obviously very scared about getting the police involved. She was trying to explain. It was agreed she wasn’t going (to hospital) and I got very angry and shouted, I said this was ridiculous.”

When asked whether Caroline pushed her friends away when she needed them most, Mollie replied: “Yes. Every time I left her for half an hour she would do something. It feels like she needed help.”

“She must’ve said ‘no-one will every understand what I’m going through’ ten times that morning. She was so scared to go to prison, of the police, the press … it was too much. All she cared about was everybody else being affected.”


Caroline’s friends ended up spending the night with her, but left the next morning at around 10.30am as the presenter was angry with them for calling an ambulance the night before.

Lou told the court: “Caroline spoke to her family about coming the next day because she wanted us to leave, she was quite angry with us. She didn’t want us there.”

I can’t help but feel so sad for her friends reading this. It sounded like Caroline was clearly very upset with her friends for calling an ambulance due to the clear emotional distress she was in even though they did the right thing by doing so. I’m sure they think all the time ‘what if’ we had just stayed with her that morning, it would be torturous. Lives can’t be lived with ‘what ifs’. Mollie says she got very frustrated when the paramedics were there and shouted it was ridiculous - whether it was aimed at them or Caroline it looks like those closest to her were too at a breaking point. Her sister said paramedics had been called on 4 separate occasions and as Mollie says above she couldn’t leave her alone for even half an hour without her doing something. I believe as sad as it is if she’d hadn’t have killed herself that day she would have another day. It was clearly constantly on her mind she wanted to end her life. She needed serious help but it was pushed away by her as she felt shame. It’s such a sad situation for all involved

Agree completely with this. She'd made numerous attempts in the past (and not just recently either of anything Andrew Brady says is to be believed) which I would suggest were more cries for help - then she hung herself which is not usually a woman's chosen method (men hang themselves, women take overdoses in general terms) That's a very deliberate act and there's usually no coming back from it. She was determined. She wanted to die.

I think I read when it happened that she'd struggled with depression since her teens. I completely agree with another poster who said earlier that she clearly wasn't cut out for the celebrity world - she was too mentally fragile and sensitive which led to horrible traits like jealousy and paranoia. Huge highs and clearly terrible, terrible lows.

Sadly, she needed specialist interventation. I think it was probably always going to be her destiny without it - the court case was just the last in a long line of straws. I said it at the time but she reads like a classic case of BPD to me. That or bipolar disorder.

I think people need to be a bit kinder to Caroline’s mum. She’s grieving the loss of her child and she’s unlikely to be thinking rationally.

Grieving, yes.

Choosing to shout like a fishwife in open court, singling out someone and blaming them for your daughter's death knowing it will be all over the media is NOT ON!

 

[Flowergirl14]

Like someone else said, I think she had a problem with growing older.
She was 40 and dating guys in their 20's.

Her mother should not be blaming her friends...what were they supposed to do...give up their own lives in order to baby sit her??

Where was her mother? Maybe she didn't know?
Not blaming her Mum.

 

[Mrsturnerreturns]

I know from personal experience that when you have someone with a severe m/h issue, you are constantly living on a knife edge of not upsetting them. And that can impact on rational decisions. Feel sorry for absolutely everyone involved. I firmly believe that with CF’s total refusal to seek appropriate treatment, her death was inevitable.

 

[allybongo]

I really don’t understand why her family didn’t get her sectioned. They can’t blame her friends for that. Thats on them.

A new thing in the article is that she had slashed her wrists. It was always inferred but I had never seen it written in black and white like that.

Sadly it’s just not that simple to ‘get someone sectioned’

 

[To cat lady]

Found it on Lou Teasdale's account....

View attachment 203727View attachment 203728

Top photograph is Stephen Teasdale (presumably Lou's father) Lou, Lewis and Jack McGuiness (GQ editor)

Second photograph is Lou & Molly.

who takes photos posing at a fucking funeral

 

[VeniVidiVicki]

You absolutely are minimising DV @whathastheworldcometo. A scalp wound is not a ‘scratch’. And no one has ever broken skin on someone’s scalp under a full head of hair by ‘flicking a phone‘.

Write as many walls of text as you like.

 

[Gym&Tonic]

I didn’t realise she’d screamed it all over the court, but I still think she should be cut a bit of slack. I’d imagine she’s living though hell.

 

[Phil Anne Throw Pee]

Losing a child is THE worst thing that can happen to anyone. Yes, her Mother's behaviour has been unpalatable, but I suspect she is not being in any way rational at the moment and will need a lot of counselling as a minimum.

 

[Badirene]

The fact he called police tells me he was scared for himself and/or her. That should not be taken likely or minimised. The details that have came out about when the police arrived she admitted she assaulted him, she had self harmed, there was blood everywhere and in the police station she flipped a table. Man or woman it doesn't matter, she sounded completely out of control and down right scary no wonder he called the police, this is not just a case of 'flicking a phone' she was obviously in a heightened state where she could not be calmed. He was that fearful he called the police, that is domestic violence - including threats of harm or harm to yourself in order to frighten or emotional blackmail/control your partner. I know Lewis got alot of hate for calling the police but I think given the information about the state she was in it was very much warranted. I know her mum and other people were criticising the police but they were doing there job? The cos decided there was enough evidence to charge her, they had footage of her admitted she hit him? What were they supposed to do? Let her off because she was a celebrity?

Did she flip the table in the police station, or did she in fact flick it

 

[Glaschelle]

I think being in 'Showbiz' wasn't the best place for someone who had a long history of mental health issues like Caroline had.

I appreciate she was probably a lovely person but she did thump her half wit boyfriend (weren't there also allegations she thumped a previous boyfriend as well) and usually if you thump someone and leave your bedroom covered in blood, it will have criminal repercussions.

And sometimes in life you have to own up to your mistakes, put your big girls pants on and deal with it!!!

The fact Caroline turned up at court wearing a mini skirt and low cut blouse on a freezing cold day, for me highlighted how she was a bit disconnected from real life.

I do feel sorry for her family and friends. Would feel sorry for anyone's family and friends.

But it might be best to celebrate the woman she was, rather than trying to blame folk.

And maybe her mum should have babysat her 24/7 if she was so concerned about her. Rather than. Expect Caroline's friends to provide the support.

 

[Boogs]

It was icky how the doc referred to her “romance” with Harry Styles in a way that painted her as an it girl who turned all the heads of the men around her. That relationship was completely inappropriate!

Her other notable romances with Andrew Brady and Lewis were also both guys in their 20’s whilst she was late 30’s/40. You could argue that she went for much younger guys because of her emotional immaturity but she also was successful in her career which meant there was a significant power imbalance in the relationships she chose.

 

[Spilttea]

When she died there was a wave of sympathy for her, all of her press courting antics and such were swept under the carpet and she was largely remembered as a fragile woman with mental health issues who tragically took her own life.

This documentary and her mother’s determination to find fault in others is going to bring up all those people who actually knew Caroline and all the ways she mostly fucked up her own life.

You can bet people have stayed silent out of respect for the way she died, but it will come out and chances are there will be evidence which will just confirm everything that was written about her before she died.