Laura Whitmore has revealed that she initially “ignored” Caroline Flack’s death as she thought it was fake news.
The 34-year-old presenter also said she wished she had not heard on Twitter about the death of her friend, who took her own life at her east London flat last month.
Flack, 40, stepped down from presenting the winter series of ITV2 show Love Island in December following an alleged assault on her boyfriend, tennis player Lewis Burton. She was awaiting trial when she died on February 15.
Friends and family were today paying a final farewell at a private funeral.
Whitmore, who replaced Flack as Love Island host, spoke tearfully about her friend’s death on Kate Thornton’s White Wine Question Time podcast.
She said: “I found out about Caroline on the Saturday and I found out in a way I wish I didn’t. It was something on Twitter that someone had tweeted initially that I disregarded because there’s always so much stuff. There are so many things that would be said about Caroline that you wouldn’t take everything as truth, so I kind of ignored it.”
Whitmore said a friend later called and told her to come home. “Then I did that thing, which I wish I didn’t. I went on Twitter and you see … different people posting things… We live in a world where we find out our news on social media and we don’t know what is right and what is wrong — there is fake news.”
After she went home her friend confirmed that it was true. Whitmore said her first thought had been for her boyfriend, Love Island narrator Iain Stirling, who was having a day off work in South Africa.
“I just wanted him to get to a safe space, if that makes sense?” she said.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
