Caroline Flack's mother reveals star feared her mental health struggles becoming public

Caroline Flack’s mother Christine has opened up about her heartbreaking struggle to persuade the TV star her life was worth living.

The 40-year-old TV presenter died by suicide on 15 February while awaiting trial on charges of assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton.

Christine Flack told ITV News Anglia: "We tried to talk to her. But I think when someone is in that place, what we say isn't being heard.

"You talk about a fabulous career and a nice home – but that doesn't matter because that's not how they're feeling.”

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An inquest into Caroline’s death revealed the Love Island presenter had had suicidal thoughts prior to her death and had been prescribed medication for insomnia in December 2019, just after being charged.

Christine said: “We knew how bad she felt, and that’s why really almost all the time someone was with her.”

She went on: "She was always frightened that the public would find out that she was vulnerable and she had these dark feelings.”

Christine was talking to Norwich School student Max Merron as part of a programme he'd organised to get his friends and classmates talking about mental health.

She said: "I used to sit with Caroline and watch television, the same as everybody else, and I would say, 'Oh I don't like them'.

"And she'd say: 'Mum, you don't even know them.' It made me stop and think, no I don't. We judge people and we don't know them. We don't know what they're going through.

“Caroline never wrote anything bad about anybody or said [anything], because she knew how much that could hurt.”

Flack died a month before she was due to face trial, accused of assaulting Burton, though he did not want the charges to go ahead.

Flack firmly denied being an abuser, and said in an unpublished social media post released by her family that the incident was an argument and accident.

Read more: Caroline Flack's mum slams Crown Prosecution Service over recent comments

Her family have accused the Crown Prosecution Service of pursuing a “show trial” against her because she was in the public eye.

For confidential emotional support at times of distress, contact The Samaritans at any time by calling 116 123 or emailing jo@samaritans.org.

Watch: Coroner ruled Caroline Flack took her life because she feared exposure of trial