From the moment she first performed in her local village pantomime, Norfolk-raised Caroline Flack knew she wanted to be a star.
Determined to crack a notoriously difficult industry, the plucky teenager left home and school at 16 to study at Cambridge performing arts college, Bodywork Company International.
She lived with older kids who would dress her up and sneak her into the local nightclubs, and her dance teacher and school founder Theresa Kerr says everyone knew she was destined to be a star.
"She was very very hard working, even then we knew that she would go somewhere," Theresa told ITV Anglia following Caroline's tragic suicide on Saturday.
"She was ambitious but not in a way that took anything away from her - she just worked hard," Theresa continued, describing the star as a 'triple threat' who could sing, dance and act.
At 19 Caroline moved to London and threw everything at trying to get her big break - auditioning for mop commercials and sleeping on friends' rodent-infested sofas.
But it proved to be tougher than she'd ever imagined.
“I always wanted to work in entertainment but it took a long time and a lot of hard work to get there," Caroline reflected to Norfolk magazine years later.
"You think you will just go to London and get a job in television and that will be that but it is not like that.”
After three years of endless auditions and working as a waitress and in a pork processing factory to pay her rent she landed a breakthrough role playing Bubbles on Keith Lemon's Bo' Selecta!
Deciding to abandon her acting dream in favour of presenting, she hosted the Pepsi Chart Show, starred in film Is Harry On The Boat and presented links between songs on E4 Music.
In 2005 she presented a segment on video games show When Games Attack before co-hosting BBC Saturday morning children's TV show, TMi.
As her star rose, she landed hosting gigs for Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, the Eurovision Son Contest semi-finals, Big Brother's Big Mouth and Gladiators.
But it was as she turned 30 that her career really took off thanks to a gig on ITV2 spin-off I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here NOW!
It brought her to the attention of music mogul Simon Cowell who hired Caroline and Olly Murs to host the Xtra Factor followed by the main show in 2015 - but that ended in disaster when both were dropped after just one series amid a show shakeup.
Caroline was also suffering from a dark depression that started the day after her Strictly Come Dancing win in December 2014.
But despite the knock back, she dusted herself off, got back to work and landed the dream job that would make her a household name - Love Island.
For five years she was as much a part of the show as the contestants.
But Caroline's world crumbled in December when she was arrested on suspicion of assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton in an alleged early-morning bust-up.
She had stepped down from the first ever winter Love Island but was expected to return for the summer show if cleared.
"Love Island has been my world for the last five years, it’s the best show on telly," she told fans in an Instagram statement.
"In order to not detract attention from the upcoming series I feel the best thing I can do is to stand down for Series 6. I want to wish the incredible team working on the show a fantastic series in Cape Town.”
Reportedly unable to watch the show, she jetted to Los Angeles for a wellness break just after Christmas, where she turned to somatic therapy - a holistic practice used to treat PTSD.
Sadly, it wasn't enough to save the fragile star who is said to have been terrified over the prospect of the trial.
Lewis did not support the prosecution and had begged the CPS to drop it, but on Friday, February 14 - the day before Caroline's death, she learned she would still have to stand trial on March 4.
* Samaritans (116 123) operates a 24-hour service available every day of the year. If you prefer to write down how you’re feeling, or if you’re worried about being overheard on the phone, you can email Samaritans at jo@samaritans.org
