Caroline Flack is finally having her say five years after death – listen to her 

On December 12, 2019, in a moment of misjudged rage, Caroline Flack struck her boyfriend Lewis Burton with a phone while he was sleeping after discovering texts from another woman.

From there, she trashed their bedroom, threw several heavy objects across the room, grabbed a shard of broken glass, and self-harmed in front of him.

It was an alcohol-induced mistake that blew open one of the most scrutinised celebrity cases of all time. When she was eventually charged with assault by beating, the case spiralled into a media storm that would ultimately lead to her death just two months later, on February 15, 2020, aged 40.

The television presenter – who only weeks earlier had been one of the brightest stars in Britain – took her own life after a determined effort to ‘bring her to justice,’ played out before a salivating audience relishing her downfall.

Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth is a damning new documentary fronted by Flack’s grieving mother, Christine, who has taken it upon herself to investigate what really happened to her vivacious daughter – and why.

The two-part Disney Plus documentary arrives four years after Channel 4’s Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death.

On the surface, not much seems to have changed since that first family-backed film in 2021, which featured interviews with her closest inner circle and revealed that The X Factor and Love Island presenter had been battling far deeper demons than the public ever realised. But it has.

For the first time, Flack’s version of events is told in her own words – through voice notes and WhatsApp messages to friends and family that have never before been made public.

They paint a deeply disturbing picture of a woman being publicly shamed as the poster girl for domestic violence.

Her life, as she knew it, was over.

Shortly after Flack was found dead in her London flat, Christine became convinced her daughter had been mistreated by both the police and the media, which seemed equally determined to destroy her.

For the past five years, Christine has buried herself in transcripts, police reports, and interviews with former prosecutors and legal experts, determined to uncover whether her daughter was treated as any other person would have been after a domestic dispute. Swiftly, it becomes clear she wasn’t.

After watching Search for the Truth, it’s almost undeniable that the public
has been severely misled about the events that led to Flack’s arrest, pending trial, and death. ‘Because of a police error, my daughter died,’ says Christine — and it’s a claim that’s hard to dispute.

Initially, the Crown Prosecution Service had no intention of charging Flack. The alleged victim was adamant he didn’t want to press charges; his injuries were so minimal that he didn’t require medical attention, and the case wasn’t considered in the public interest.

Flack herself was the only person who required medical attention – her injuries were so severe that she needed plastic surgery on her arms.
In theory, the incident could have been seen as nothing more than a dreadful mistake.

According to Christine, the case was only escalated when a detective overheard details of the incident and intervened, insisting that Flack should be charged.

Christine later discovered it was the detective in question who had even gone against a CPS decision when that same night, while dealing with the shooting of a high-risk missing person, but for some inexplicable reason, it was Flack’s case that caught her attention.

After spending 12 hours in the hospital, Flack was arrested. The press received a tip-off almost immediately and, like vultures, swarmed outside her house. From that moment, the narrative was fixed: she had beaten her boyfriend – and there was nothing she could do to convince the public otherwise.

Flack’s life unravelled from there. She almost immediately lost her job on Love Island just days before its first winter series was due to air on ITV2. She was replaced by Laura Whitmore, wife of the show’s narrator, Iain Stirling, and in a devastated message to a friend, she wrote: ‘I’ve lost my job 🙁 I’ve lost it all. And so publicly.’

Less than a month later, Love Island returned without her, and Flack said it felt like she had been ‘airbrushed’ out of her own Bafta-winning show, of which she was an integral cog in its enormous success.

With paparazzi stalking her Stoke Newington home day and night, Flack sought refuge in the exclusive London hotel The Ned. She barely left her room, venturing out only for the occasional dinner, while concerned friends checked in on her around the clock.

One of the defining images of Flack’s final months shows her at her most vulnerable: arriving at the Magistrates’ Court dressed in black,
dishevelled, hiding behind a scarf, her eyes glazed over as though walking to her own execution.

Her close friend Mollie reveals that just hours before those photos were taken, Flack had overdosed on medication and ‘drunk the minibar dry.’ It’s one of several new sucker punch details that really put the severity of Flack’s mental health into perspective.

By all accounts, that day cemented the public perception of Flack as a monster. The prosecution described the crime scene as ‘something out of a horror movie,’ having incorrectly claimed that Flack struck Lewis with a lamp. It was a green light for the press to run away with this misinformation, presenting it as fact.

The claims were supported by photos leaked to The Sun showing a blood-smeared bedroom – but all the blood was Flack’s. Still distressing, but it painted a completely different picture from the one presented at the time. The images were so shocking that even her own sister admitted: ‘It affected the way I thought about my sister.’

As the title suggests, the documentary is a desperate attempt to uncover what really happened to Flack and why. Despite tireless efforts, Christine is still denied many of the answers she seeks: both the Met Police and The Sun refused to meet her face-to-face.

She’s waiting for the front page apology, and there remains zero accountability for pursuing a case that likely would have been dismissed had anyone other than Flack been at its centre.

But Search for the Truth’s power lies in Flack herself, who is finally given a voice more than five years after her death. She never gave interviews, was strictly ordered to stay silent until her trial, and until now had only shared brief, erratic glimpses into her state of mind through social media.

Flack’s phones were handed over to the documentary team, providing completely unrestricted access to her messages and voice notes. It’s all that remains of her perspective during those final months.

Through her communications, we follow her journey from devastation and disbelief to fleeting moments of hope. Most of her friends and family remained steadfastly focused on her well-being, and at times, there were glimmers that she might recover.

‘I just feel [the case is] going to be dropped,’ she said in one moment of optimism in the few days she started smiling again. Her friend Mollie recalls Flack telling her: ‘I’m going to be ok.’ Flack was looking ahead to a future, even planning a documentary about the injustice of her turmoil.

That hope quickly evaporated, though, when it was confirmed that the trial would go ahead. ‘My life is over,’ she wrote.

Search for the Truth is an extraordinary accomplishment for a mother who has spent every waking moment of the past five years fighting for her daughter – a woman smeared and vilified by a merciless press and a cowardly CPS.

Though questions remain unanswered, the film offers a powerful sense of clarity: Flack should never have been prosecuted, and a life was needlessly ended with shocking cruelty.

Perhaps this documentary can restore some dignity for a woman who just wanted to live and be loved. She wasn’t perfect, but she was human – hopefully now she’ll finally be treated like one.

Caroline Flack: Search For The Truth is available to stream on Disney Plus now.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.