The views expressed within this article are entirely the author’s own and are not attributable to The Edge Magazine or to SUSU.
On Saturday it was announced that former Love Island host Caroline Flack had sadly taken her own life at the age of 40 years old. Her death is a tragic story of a young women at the peak of her career gone too soon. The details of her passing have not been fully released, but the way in which she died is a message to online trolls and paparazzi to be kinder as their actions and words are partly to blame for such a horrific event. Her close friend Laura Whitmore called Caroline a “vivacious and loving” friend on her radio show this morning and said “I’m not going to pretend she was perfect, but is anyone? She lived every mistake publicly, under the scrutiny of the media”.
Caroline was undergoing a court case which became a public spectacle, she was obviously a woman suffering and instead the tabloid press and online critics continuously brought her down. The Sun newspaper are a prime example of this as on Valentines Day, the day before her death, they posted a Valentine’s Day Card which insulted the host. She was not the perfect person, as no one is, but no one should be brought to the point of not being able to live any longer.
Her death only further demonstrates the harm of online hate culture and the issues surrounding the media, currently a petition posted on the online site 38 Degrees titled ‘Caroline’s Law’ has been trending. It calls for new laws around media regulation in the wake of the presenter’s death and at the time of writing has attracted more than 110,000 signatures. We can only hope that a new law gets put in place to protect celebrities from the harm of the media.
Caroline had an amazing career, some highlights include her West End debut playing Roxie Hart in Chicago in 2018, proving she has more talented than the media ever gave her credit for. She won Strictly Come Dancing in 2014 with her dance partner Pasha Kovalev and became the face of Love Island. She should be remembered for all her amazing successes she had over her 20-year career, she was taken from the world too soon but hopefully her death can be a message to everyone and the press out there to be kinder to people.
Also, a reminder to everyone check up on your friends, you never know if they are hurting.
