Caroline Flack’s mum Christine reveals the late star’s ‘beautiful’ memorial bench

Caroline Flack‘s mum has revealed the late star’s ‘beautiful’ memorial bench where the family goes to feel at ‘peace.’

The former Love Island presenter, who took her own life aged 40 last February, is remembered by those closest to her with a bench in Norfolk that’s inscribed with the heartbreaking words: ‘Our beautiful girl whose tiny feet made such a big imprint on the world.’

Christine Flack, 70, said she can talk to her late daughter when she visits the bench, as it’s ‘so peaceful’ – and trying to connect with her anywhere else feels ‘silly.’ 

Tribute: Caroline Flack’s mum has revealed the late star’s ‘beautiful’ memorial bench where the family goes to feel at ‘peace’

Speaking ahead of Channel 4 documentary Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death, Christine said: ‘That is a place we go and we go quite often and it’s just somewhere to go, which is silly because you can talk to her anywhere but if you go there and just sit and it is so peaceful.

‘There are lots of people around that are also grieving for their children and parents and you feel you can talk to her there, which I know is silly but you can.’

To mark the first anniversary of her tragic passing, Christine and Caroline’s sister Jody, 41, visited her bench, which is located in a serene woodland.

In the film that aired on Wednesday, Christine explained: ‘We all needed a place just to come, sit and remember really, this just fitted it, it was just beautiful.

Tragic: The former Love Island presenter, who took her own life aged 40 last February, is remembered with a bench in Norfolk that's inscribed with a heartbreaking message

Tragic: The former Love Island presenter, who took her own life aged 40 last February, is remembered with a bench in Norfolk that’s inscribed with a heartbreaking message 

‘You come here and I don’t know I think it allows you to talk to Carrie because you feel silly anywhere else.

‘Here she is, she’s become a wooden bench. It’s as if she’s there really, as if she’s still here but she’s not.’

Reading out the inscription, Christine said: ‘Our beautiful girl whose tiny feet made such a big imprint on the world.

‘Carrie, we miss and love you so very much. Just to have another moment, another kiss, another smile.

‘One more chance to hear you laughing or just hold you for a while… And I think that says it all really.’

Always remembered: 'That is a place we go and we go quite often and it's just somewhere to go, which is silly because you can talk to her anywhere but if you go there and just sit and it is so peaceful,' her mother Christine explained

Always remembered: ‘That is a place we go and we go quite often and it’s just somewhere to go, which is silly because you can talk to her anywhere but if you go there and just sit and it is so peaceful,’ her mother Christine explained 

Close: A young Caroline with her twin sister Jody in Norfolk during the early 1990s

Close: A young Caroline with her twin sister Jody in Norfolk during the early 1990s

Christine and Jody reveal in the documentary that Caroline had long struggled with her mental health and bouts of depression – and those closest to her had lived with the fear she would one day take her own life.

Jody said: ‘She was quite fascinated by the subject of suicide always, and I knew that about her. So, yes, it was a worry for a long time and something I think I tried to get my head around for a long time. I was prepared it could happen.’ 

The film was made with the co-operation of the family and those closest to Caroline to celebrate her life, as well as show that she deeply suffered with her own demons behind closed doors. 

Christine said: ‘I wanted to show Carrie in a positive light, I wanted all the last months of the things that were written about her and said about her, her being an abuser, and things like that, they’re the things that stuck and got repeated and I just wanted to show she was an ordinary girl, that wasn’t her.

‘What was shown at the end wasn’t her. She wasn’t perfect but that wasn’t her.

‘Everyone was saying you can’t say anything yet but I wanted to show a positive side to Caroline and the memory to be of this positive, nice person, and my daughter, and a sister, she never changed and she was good to us and lovely.’   

Christine, who looks back at old photographs of Caroline when she was a child in the film, reflected on the last Christmas Day she spent with her daughter in 2019.

Caroline drove to Norfolk, and ‘she laughed and we had fun and I thought maybe we had turned the corner.’ But on Boxing Day she drove home, ‘and you don’t know what was in her head,’ Christine explained.