Hulu’s Caroline Flack Doc Gives ‘Love Island UK’ Host Her Story Back

In December 2019, one of Britain’s most successful television presenters, Caroline Flack, became the target of relentless media scrutiny after she allegedly attacked 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 details how Flack went from a beloved host of popular competition shows including “The X Factor” and “Love Island UK” to a pariah after she was arrested in connection with the attack, 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 trying to find answers to the events leading up to Caroline’s suicide in February 2020. Christine tries to determine whether her daughter was treated fairly by the media and legal system, or whether she was brought to justice and unfairly targeted due to her fame and the media’s desire to produce clickbait stories about the demise of a star.

“Caroline’s legacy has been so tarnished in the eyes of the British public by the events surrounding her arrest and the two months leading up to her death,” Collerton said. “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 was not what actually happened. Christine wanted to at least reframe and reclaim her daughter’s story.”

First-hand testimony 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 damage to Burton, who did not believe his girlfriend should appear in court. It is also revealed that Flack hit Burton over the head with her phone and not a lamp. Images of a blood-soaked bedroom taken immediately after the alleged attack, which appeared extensively in British newspapers and tabloids, were also misleading. The media reported that the blood was Burton’s, but that was not the case. It was Caroline’s blood covering the sheets, caused by a self-inflicted wound. Flack spent 12 hours in the hospital after the incident; Burton received no medical treatment whatsoever.

“If you asked most of the people who were on this before the show came out to tell me about Caroline Flack, they would say, ‘She’s that presenter who attacked 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 spread by the CPS, and then in the newspapers. But when you look at the evidence collected by Christine over a four-year period, it’s a very different story.”

Flack and Burton were not allowed to communicate during the lead-up to the trial, which reportedly included bodycam footage of Flack reportedly suffering a mental breakdown immediately after the attack. The TV presenter was ashamed of the images and absolutely did not want them to be made public. Flack was also advised not to speak out publicly. Before her death, she sold her London flat 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 thought she was with the one the tabloids portrayed, using text messages she sent to friends and family.

“One of the fundamental points of the film is what happens when your truth is taken out of your hands and manipulated,” says Collerton. “Caroline had no voice for the last two months of her life, and this film series is about giving her that voice back and letting her 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 someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.