Following the sad news of Caroline Flack's passing we have updated this article, which was originally published in 2015, to include contact information for the Samaritans. If you want to talk to someone about your mental health you can call Samaritans on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
Caroline Flack has opened up about her time dating Harry Styles and it makes uncomfortable reading.
Not because of the frankly-no-one-else’s-business age gap, but because of the public’s reaction to her.
“It began to go wrong when Harry was pictured coming out of my house one morning,” Caroline explains.
“And once that was out, it was open season – anyone could say anything. In the street people started shouting at me ‘paedophile’ and ‘pervert’.
“A One Direction fanzine had me as a voodoo doll, with arrows (pins) pointing to bits of my anatomy.”
Caroline and Harry met on The X Factor in 2010.
At the time of the show’s final, Harry was 17 years old and Caroline 32, an age gap of 15 years.
So, less than that between Peter Andre and Emily MacDonagh, for example.
Just saying.
“In the entertainment industry nobody asks what age you are," Caroline explained.
“I’ve never felt I was much older than Harry anyway.
"I still feel 18 and probably act that way half the time — all those years in kids’ telly probably didn’t help…
“We were both single, we got on well and we had a laugh.”
Caroline makes the revelations about the, frankly really horrible, things she was called by One Direction fans and members of the public in her autobiography Storm In A C Cup.