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Home , Caroline Flack, Colin Murray, Love Island (franchise), Olivia Buckland

celebrity Carolinecelebrity Flack Her body, career and relationship status have been tabloid catnip for years. Now, for the first time, she puts every rumour to rest ›

Words LOTTIE Lumsden hits Photographs IAN HARRISON

3636 · COSMOPOLITAN back “i don’t celebrity care what a hosting stint on in 2015, it made us feel uncomfortable. Same, too, when she was forced to hit back at bullies in 2012 after a fan magazine created a voodoo doll of her, and wrote about her “crow’s people feet” and “zero engagement rings”, following the news that she was dating , 15 years her junior. It’s a bit like watching a school friend being bullied. Since her relationship with Harry was revealed five years ago, barely a think any week has gone by without headlines in the press shouting about some aspect of her life. So, with this in mind, we asked Caroline, who is back on ITV2 this month presenting a new series of , to talk us through the headlines to find out the truth more” behind the woman everyone seems says , gesticulating for her new play perched on her lap, to think they know so much about… wildly with a pair of sunglasses. She she tells me everything from why she has a habit of talking quickly, like an loves her “womanly” boobs, to how

excitable child, and has one of those she really fancies a Bloody Mary (it’s , o m. S horts laughs that gets you on side instantly. only 3.30pm). But, no, we’ve actually We’re sat chatting at Soho restaurant only met twice before and, as I’m December 2016 L’Escargot, but midway through quickly learning, this is just who “Caroline Flack lets loose orn throughout )

telling me how her outlook on life Caroline is. Which is probably why on wild holiday in Mexico as w n (w , ck. R ing , G ravesto Laura c e , £65,

has changed lately, one of the most people (and that includes me) are a she downs giant cocktails y ni c ho l s .c harve ai l s at beautiful-looking Mediterranean men a little bit obsessed with her. ckl . N e

I have ever seen appears at our table In a world where celebrities learn and dances in a sombrero R , £140, with the steak and chips we have to be so guarded, Caroline, 37, refuses

while partying with pals” opshop ordered for lunch. Caroline turns to bother. She’s accessible (just take a to me and whispers, “The French look at her account), makes accent drives me insane! And the it known that she loves a good night “I don’t get what’s wrong with that! It , £30, T , £30, . S horts EFORE. R ings , Caro l ine ’ s o B EFORE. c e , AS

one before him...” She drops her out, and is vocal about being as sounds like a bloody good time. I was a

jaw, feigning shock, before adding, unlucky in love as the rest of us. And actually in Dubai, not Mexico. Gizzi ckl

“We were like...” That laugh again. it’s perhaps that vulnerability that Erskine and I had gone on a girlie c h . N e

Anyone watching would think that makes her so much more relatable holiday and I didn’t want anyone to S hirt orn throughout ). THIS PAGE: I had known Caroline for years, to than any A-lister. She is every girl. know where we were, because [paps] w n (w hear how uncensored she is today. And so when we saw her come will find you anywhere. So I put on Dressed in tiny shorts, an oversized under attack from trolls about her my Instagram that we were in Mexico › £58, Ab er c ro mb ie & F it Caro l ine ’ s o camouflage jacket, and with a script weight and presenting skills during – the next day we pretended we were G ap £16.95, T-SHIRT, PREVIOUS PAGE:

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over-learn things. When I co-presented the European Poker Tour [in 2004] with Colin Murray, I did an intense course so I knew what I was talking about, because I’m not very good at blagging. You’ve got to be prepared for when things go wrong. It has never worked against me, but it might annoy people a bit! At the moment, work is very busy with Love Island, and I’ve just taken on a lead role in a national musical theatre tour of Crazy For You, which means I have no weekends off until the end of the year. I don’t mind, though, it’s exciting.”

NOVEMBER 2016 “I’ve taken a lot of Flack, but I finally feel comfortable “I don’t see in my own skin” myself as a “I guess I have [taken a lot of flack], victim – I have but I don’t see myself as a victim a good life” because I have such a good life. The media love a woman having a breakdown, and I can be sitting there at home reading that I’m going through one when, actually, I’m in my kitchen eating my cornflakes, about in Brazil. We just kept tagging different the way I think. I’m really social and a laugh today, go on my Instagram I love my work, and have always to go to the gym and having a right locations and nobody found us! still will be when I’m walking around and read the comments.’ This is just been a grafter. At school, I knew that laugh watching Good Morning Britain. After Strictly I wasn’t so lucky when with a zimmer frame going to bingo. JULY 2016 what happens with social media, and I wanted to work in TV, but I came There have been some hard times I went to Jamaica for New Year’s Eve But I definitely went through a crazy “Love Island viewers accuse I’m used to it now. I don’t sit and from with no connections, in my career, and it goes through

with my friend Lou. We were in this stage as a teenager. I left home at 16 c e , dwell on it. Instead, I’m more like, so I had to find a way to do it. When peaks and troughs. The 2015 X Factor

Caroline Flack of ‘flirting’ a little hotel with hardly anyone there, to go to theatre school [the Bodywork ‘Oh, here we go again.’ I moved to London aged 19 after was the most challenging because it with islander Alex Bowen in ckl and I said, ‘Do you think we could go Company] in . I lived in . b efore c e , as I didn’t fancy anyone from the theatre school, it took me nearly was difficult to fill somebody’s shoes a

topless?’ She said, ‘Yeah’. A few days a house with 20 girls. I’d never really front of girlfriend Olivia” ckl show last year and I don’t this year. five years to get my first TV job [she and replaced Dermot later, her ex-boyfriend called up and been allowed out or tried alcohol. You shouldn’t mix business with (as Bubbles on Leigh Francis’s Bo’ O’Leary] on a show that is so loved. said, ‘Have you seen that your boobs The other girls were all 18 and they pleasure, unless, of course, you fall in Selecta!). Until then, I had to do You couldn’t do right for doing wrong, c h are in ?’ We had been followed took me under their wing. We didn’t “There was a furore after the last love – you can’t help that, but I don’t every job I could get to pay the bills: or wrong for doing right, but you had the entire time. I learned a good lesson, have any money but we still managed show in the series [viewers went mad . N e Monsoon , £59, think that’s going to happen. I am I worked in Pizza Express, was a to go out there and put your show face because there is nothing worse than to go out every night and somehow after Caroline uploaded a picture to there to look after the contestants, and magician’s assistant (he actually on. It’s pretty hard to go in every week S e l fri d ge . N Miss , £32, c h . S horts being followed on holiday. I just want get drunk on £1… The others used Instagram of her and Alex hugging : J u m psuit see myself as an older sister to them nearly chopped my ear off), filmed and do your best when, sometimes,

to put my hair in a topknot and be to have to try and get me into at the Love Island wrap party]. It was , £58, Ab er c ro mb ie & F it all. It’s nice to work on a show with a self-defence video, made sandwiches that isn’t good enough. But you win sweaty! The wild headlines are nightclubs, because I looked about silly, but funny, because his girlfriend a bit of a buzz, and it was the same in a café and even picked daffodils. some and you lose some, and you’re exaggerated, but I do like to live life 10 years old. We were young and it was [now fiancée], , was , l eft t page with X Factor, Strictly and I’m A I always found a way to earn money. not going to go home, cry and quit, to the full and I think that is really brilliant, but I got to 18 and realised stood right next to us. Celebrity… – you walk into a shop, I’m a perfectionist with my work, because that’s not the way the world , RIGHT: S hirt , RIGHT: t page important. My dad always said to work I’d had two mad years. I was more That day, I wrote on my Facebook , £58, Ab er c ro mb ie & F it and someone starts telling you, ‘Oh, and my dad always told me that works. People say, ‘You must be really op T hard, play hard and be kind, and that’s tame in my twenties.” page, ‘Hey guys, if anyone wants . N e x b efore as ne x this person is my favourite.’ knowledge is power, so I tend to angry,’ but I’m not. I’m thankful for ›

40 · COSMOPOLITAN COSMOPOLITAN · 41 celebrity the opportunities. You have to spin it although holidays should be for on my own, and in your head to be something positive, indulging and having a glass of rosé. when I started I and can’t walk away feeling bitter. I’m still self-conscious, though, wasn’t in the right I am very content right now. Waking and think I always will be about place to go out with up at the moment feels like a nice certain things. I became really anyone anyway. thing to do, whereas when I’ve had bad obsessed the other day that I have I was never times, it is the worst part of the day. really odd-shaped nostrils, and then somebody who’d I have ups and downs, and mood I noticed that none of my face is go out on the pull swings here and there, but that’s actually symmetrical. But I can’t be but, in that year, normal. I think it has a lot to do with sad about my wonky face, because instead of going on my age. When I reached 34, I suddenly I’m not going to get another one, dates, I’d see friends. got a big dose of not caring what am I? I’ve got seven nieces and And if anyone asked u k

people thought any more. It takes a . nephews and, as you get older, things me out, I’d be like, o while to learn, but you do eventually .c like that become the priority, not how ‘I’m free in a year!’ become more comfortable with who i d e , ldw LMC Wor at treets you look. I definitely don’t think of Not that I got loads c argot you are and [become] proud of your myself as beautiful – I do alright and of offers, but I did . l es achievements. Now I’ve got more I get by, but I’ve got funny old teeth now and again. confidence when it comes to my N ai l s Am i S y. and wonky eyes. But then I’ve always I’m not talking body, work and meeting people. This been about humour over looks. about my sex life,

is who I am and people can either T i lb ur otte I’ve never been the prettiest or the [but] you do the accept that or not. This expectation cleverist, but I’ve always been able maths! It came a dd e d- sugar d rin k Zeo of being perfect is what has got to make people laugh.” to a natural end everyone going crazy.” after a year because I’d achieved all the no - d or for assa m eti c s an d Char l C Cos things I wanted to. NOVEMBER 2012 In the future, I’d love to be a mum, I’ve learned a lot, and now I’m a bit NOVEMBER 2015 “Olly Murs: Caroline Flack but I don’t know how it’s going to more fussy when it comes to dating “The X Factor 2015: happen just yet. I’m not against doing – I know what I want. and I will get hitched if it on my own, but I’m also not against My friends try and set me up with Caroline Flack hits o m. Caro l ine is an a mb we’re both single at 40” doing it with someone else. people, which is very sweet, but I’m back at body-shaming I’ve actually only just started dating like, ‘I’m OK!’ I am dating again now .c outour k, using M A V er m aa - up Christian comments on ” y again, because I did a year-long – maybe I’ve already [met someone]…

. Ma k e “Jesus, we haven’t got long left, have relationship detox, which I started Let’s just say, I’m in a brilliant place.” ◆ yl ist

t we? We made that deal back when at the end of 2015. It wasn’t like I Love Island hits screens nightly this “This was a bit like when you have a we were presenting The Xtra Factor planned it or told people, I just woke month on ITV2; the Crazy For You bill to pay and you decide not to open [in 2011], and didn’t realise we’d both up one morning and decided to give national theatre tour begins in August the envelope because you know it’s zy for . V isit Cra y Im ages be single. We did it as a joke, and now up for a month so I could focus on going to be a lot of money. I knew we’re like Julia Roberts (in My Best other things, like buying a new house, S y es , using Batiste that there were lots of comments from Friend’s Wedding)! I probably won’t my career, friends and family. It was Caroline’s dream people because my Twitter account : G ett O graphs marry Olly. If it was going to happen, because, at the time, I wasn’t feeling Love Island line-up was going mad, but I didn’t want to it would have happened by now. my best and I needed to clear my Caro l H a c h at Gizzi Erskine a look – reading negative comments Sorry, Olls. There was a point, on mind and give myself time to breathe. “Not only is she great company, is futile. And then one night, lo and a throwaway comment to someone, These days, I’ve found a better balance. y er b the first day we worked together on Basically, I was stuck in a rut. Since but she could cook the food.”

behold, I opened that envelope. And I end up feeling awful afterwards I like to go out but I also love to go to ven Ba Xtra Factor, that we did fancy each my twenties I had moved from one Larry David it was exactly what I thought it was and go home thinking about it. the gym and eat healthily. There was a other. We spent the whole day flirting relationship to the next. Never had “He would bring

. hair S all the LOLs.” going to be [one tweet read, ‘Either Imagine doing that all the time! time when I would go on a retreat for outrageously. We thought something I given myself time to heal. Something Caroline Flack is preggers or she had Weirdly, I’m more comfortable in a week, then go and indulge for two te m p was going to happen at the judges’ had to change. Essentially, I put myself Steve Coogan “For a bit of eye candy.” a big meal before the show’]. What my body now that I’m 37 than I was weeks, then go and do another retreat. aire y S houses, but it didn’t, and that was into relationship rehab. d. Add itiona l phot d. Al for Ma ddy ssistant Doris Day did those people want me to do – when I was 22. Back then, I thought I see a PT three days a week now it. That ship sailed really early on. Relationships can be draining, make “She’s my dream get a new body and face? I had cellulite. I didn’t, and I wish and she’s changed my life – she’s I hear stories about people who fall you lose your confidence and take a woman.” A ashion People on social media need to I had just walked around in a bikini half-personal trainer, half-therapist. . F in love with their friends, but I can’t lot out of you. And you can be tainted S Ed itor ashion Bear Grylls get a life. It can’t be a good feeling all the time. I’d quite like that body It’s about finding a happy medium, imagine it. Kissing Olly would be when you come out of something “He would keep us all alive.” using OR LY saying nasty things like that. If I make now, please. and I’d rather keep it consistent, S enior F like kissing my brother. long-term. So it was nice to have time

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