Hulu’s Caroline Flack Doc Gives Late British TV Host of ‘Love Island UK’ a Chance to Tell Her Truth

In December 2019, one of Britain’s most successful television hosts, Caroline Flack, became the target of relentless media scrutiny after allegedly assaulting her boyfriend, tennis player Lewis Burton, with a lamp. Two months later, the once vibrant TV personality died by suicide.

In Hulu‘s two-part docuseries “Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth,” director Christian Collerton chronicles how Flack went from beloved host of hit competition shows, including “The X Factor” and “Love Island UK,” to a pariah after being arrested in connection with the assault, to which she pleaded not guilty.

The series is told through the eyes of Flack’s mother, Christine, as she celebrates her daughter’s life and career while also seeking to understand and find answers to the events that led to Caroline’s suicide in February 2020. Christine attempts to determine whether her daughter was being treated fairly by the media and the justice system, or whether she was being put on trial and unfairly targeted because of her fame and the media’s desire to produce clickbait stories about the downfall of a star.

“The legacy of Caroline in the British public’s eyes has been so tainted by the events of her arrest and the two months leading up to her death,” says Collerton. “But by looking at the details of what really happened, which we do in this series, it becomes clear that much of what was reported in the newspapers wasn’t what actually happened. Christine wanted at the very least to reframe and reclaim her daughter’s narrative.”

First-hand testimonies from Flack’s family, friends, former publicist, lawyer, as well as the former chief prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), and some members of the press who seemed to be on a mission to destroy the 40-year-old, reveal several inconsistencies in the case against Flack. According to the series, Flack caused minimal physical harm to Burton, who didn’t believe that his girlfriend should go to trial. It is also revealed that Flack hit Burton on the head with her phone and not a lamp. Images of a blood-soaked bedroom taken immediately after the alleged assault, which ran extensively in British newspapers and tabloids, were also misleading. The media reported that the blood was Burton’s, but it wasn’t. It was Caroline’s blood covering the bed sheets, caused by a self-inflicted injury. Flack spent 12 hours in the hospital after the incident; Burton did not receive any medical treatment.

“If you ask most people coming into this before the series went out, to tell me about Caroline Flack, they would say, ‘She’s that presenter who assaulted her boyfriend with a lamp and cut herself, and there was blood everywhere, and then she killed herself,’” Collerton says. “Essentially, that was the story that was being put out by the CPS, and then also in the newspapers. But when you look into the evidence that Christine gathered over a four-year period by Christine, it’s a completely different story.”

Flack and Burton were not allowed to communicate during the lead-up to the trial, which would have included bodycam footage of Flack allegedly having a mental breakdown directly following the assault. The TV host was embarrassed by the footage, and adamantly did not want it to be made public. Flack was also advised not to speak out publicly. Before her death, she sold her flat in London and moved into an apartment that she rarely left. The docuseries chronicles Flack’s struggle in her last two months of life to reconcile the person she believed herself to be with the one portrayed by the tabloid press, by using text messages she sent to friends and family.

“One of the fundamental points of the film is what happens when your truth gets taken out of your hands and manipulated,” Collerton says. “Caroline had no voice during those final two months of her life, and this film series is all about giving her that voice back and allowing her to tell the truth.

“Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth” is streaming on Hulu and Disney+. The series was produced by Curious Films, the production company behind the 2021 documentary “Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death.”

If you or anyone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.