Caroline Flack opens up about depression, says it began following her Strictly Come Dancing victory

Caroline Flack has opened up about suffering from depression, saying it began following her Strictly Come Dancing victory in 2014.

The 39-year-old Love Island host also said that her “lowest point” came when Graham Norton made joked about her panned stint as X Factor host alongside Olly Murs.

Flack said that – the morning after winning Strictly – she felt like her body was “covered” in “clingfilm”, saying she felt ”ridiculous” feeling so low after her dancefloor victory.

“I couldn’t get up and just couldn’t pick myself up at all that next year,” she told The Sun.

She said that “anti-depressants helped me get up in the morning” but they also made her “numb”, adding: “I came off them after six months, as I realised feeling something was better than feeling nothing at all”.

The presenter, who suffered depression for about a year, fought back tears when Baftas host Norton joked about her X Factor stint.

“I didn’t have a plus one, and Graham’s first joke was basically, ‘There’s more chance of Anne Boleyn returning to Wolf Hall’,” she said.

“I remember the person next to me touching my arm in sympathy and just trying not to cry. I went home pretty much straight after. It was really horrible and my lowest point.”

Flack has recently made headlines over her on-off romance with Andrew Brady and said: “We need to be happy in ourselves before we can be together.”

For confidential support in the UK, contact the Samaritans at 116 123.

In the US, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.