Caroline Flack: The life and career of Love Island’s biggest star

As an X Factor host and a winner of Strictly Come Dancing, Caroline Flack was a star of Saturday night TV.

But it was reality dating series Love Island that took the presenter to the peak of her career.

Taking over as host as the show was relaunched in 2015, over five series Flack became synonymous with the programme that has now become one of the most-watched reality shows in the UK.

Some 3.6 million viewers tuned in to watch Amber and Greg being crowned champions at the end of last summer’s series, with a further 400,000 streaming the show.

The previous year, Flack was present as the show won a TV BAFTA for best reality and constructed factual show.

Growing up near the town of Thetford, in Norfolk, Flack attended Great Hockham Primary School and then Wayland High School in Watton.

She then moved away from East Anglia to London to pursue her career, which kick-started in 2002 when she played Bubbles on the sketch show Bo’ Selecta, with Keith Lemon. She also had presenting jobs on E4 Music and on the CBBC channel.

From there she went on to work on a variety of prime-time shows, from Gladiators on Sky One to ITV2 spin-off shows I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! NOW!, alongside Joe Swash and Russell Kane, and The Xtra Factor, with singer Olly Murs.

She and Murs went on to host the main X Factor show for one series from August 2015, replacing Dermot O’Leary, and her autobiography, Storm In A C Cup, was also released that year.

Addressing criticism the pair received during their time on the show, Flack said she had learnt to ignore her detractors.

“Not everyone is going to like you so you have to filter it,” she told The Sun.

She took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2014, and went on to win the series with her dance partner, Pasha Kovalev.

A talented singer and dancer, she made her West End stage debut playing Roxie Hart in Chicago in 2018, having previously appeared on stage in a touring version of Crazy For You.

And last year she appeared in an episode of Channel 4’s charity show The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer, alongside other stars including journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy, actor Greg Wise and boxer Nicola Adams.

But Flack will be best remembered for presenting Love Island and its spin-off show Love Island: Aftersun, helping to make the show a huge hit.

Among the hundreds of tributes that are being paid to the star are those of former contestants, including Molly-Mae Hague, Chris Hughes, Kady McDermott, Zara Holland and Olivia Buckland.

“I’m utterly shocked and heartbroken,” Hague wrote on Instagram alongside a photograph of herself and Flack.

“Caroline you were such a special woman. Your huge smile will stay with me forever… Rest in peace.”

In recent months, it was Flack’s troubled personal life that made the headlines, and she stepped down from the show after allegedly assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton, 27, in December.

She was accused of hitting Burton over the head with a lamp, causing a head injury.

But former professional tennis player and model Burton said he did not support the prosecution and insisted he was not a victim.

He spoke out in defence of his girlfriend, saying she has become the subject of a “witch hunt” following her arrest.

After pleading not guilty, Flack was due to stand trial in March.

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(c) Sky News 2020: Caroline Flack: The life and career of Love Island’s biggest star