Caroline Flack Died By Suicide Amid 'Distress' Over Public Trial, Coroner Rules

“Love Island” host Caroline Flack took her own life in February after learning that she would be prosecuted for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend, fearing that it would end her career and put her under intense media scrutiny, a U.K. coroner ruled Thursday.

Flack, 40, was found dead at her home in Stoke Newington, London on Feb. 15, just weeks before she was due to go on trial for assaulting her 27-year-old boyfriend, Lewis Burton, in December last year. Coroner Mary Hassell said in an inquest verdict that she killed herself “because of an exacerbation of fluctuating ill health and distress,” Associated Press reported.

The coroner said that the way the assault case played out in the national press was “difficult” for Flack, who feared that her career was over.

“I find the reason for her taking her life was she now knew she was being prosecuted for certainty, and she knew she would face the media, press, publicity – it would all come down upon her,” Hassell said while speaking at Poplar Coroner's Court in London, The Guardian reported.

“Caroline had fluctuating mental ill health, she had had struggles in the past. In spite of the fact she may have led – to some – a charmed life, actually the more famous she got, the more some of these difficulties increased – she had to deal with the media in a way most of us don’t,” the coroner continued.

The inquest heard that in December, Burton called emergency services claiming Flack had been “trying to kill him” while he was asleep. He also said he had cracked his head after being hit with a lamp.

Flack had self-harmed after the incident, and police took her to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation before she was questioned, the inquest heard. During questioning, Flack admitted to attacking her boyfriend as she suspected he was cheating on her.

The inquest hearing was attended by Flack's mother, Chris Flack, who accused the police and prosecutors of treating her daughter unfairly because she was a celebrity.

The Crown Prosecution Service had initially decided to caution the celebrity for the domestic assault case, but they decided to charge her following an appeal by police.

“If it had been... an ordinary person, you wouldn't have prosecuted,” Chris told Detective Inspector Lauren Bateman.

However, the inspector denied the allegation that Flack's status had any bearing on the decision. “I was not biased and I treat everyone the same,” Bateman said.

Days before ending her life, Flack had penned a note where she termed the incident with Burton an accident.

“The reason I am talking today is because my family can’t take anymore. I’ve lost my job. My home. My ability to speak,” Flack wrote in an unpublished Instagram post which was shared through the Eastern Daily Press by her family. “The truth has been taken out of my hands and used as entertainment.”

Following her arrest, Flack had left her job as the host of “Love Island.”