Love is complicated.
“Love Island” host Laura Whitmore took to Instagram this week to reveal that she will not be returning for the reality hit’s next installment — and alluded to former host, the late Caroline Flack, in her announcement.
“There are certain elements of the show I’ve found very difficult that cannot be changed some due to the format, including the flying back and forth to South Africa along with my new conflicting projects,” said the Dublin-born model and actress, 37.
Noting that she would rather be able to stay on, Whitmore assured her more than 1 million followers they’ll “be in safe hands.
“I was only planning to fill in for Caroline for a series and it turned into 3 series,” she said. “I hope I did you proud Caroline [heart emoji]️.”
Flack — who hosted the reality love competition from its 2015 debut until 2019 and the “Aftersun” spinoff from 2017 to 2019 — died by suicide in February 2020. She was 40.
In August of that year, a coroner confirmed that Flack had hanged herself in her London apartment just two months after she had been charged with assaulting her boyfriend, former tennis pro Lewis Burton, who was 28 at the time.
Coroner Mary Hassell at the time expressed her belief that Flack’s suicide was the result of pending prosecution and fears about “the media, press, publicity.
“It would all come down upon her,” said Hassell at the time. “To me, that’s it in essence.”
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