20 February 2020
Newsdesk
Paloma Faith has suggested late British TV presenter Caroline Flack was suffering from an "undiagnosed illness behind the scenes".
The 40-year-old former Love Island host committed suicide at her London flat on Saturday after it was confirmed she would face trial for an alleged assault on her boyfriend, Lewis Burton.
Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, Paloma shared a statement about Caroline titled 'Shut up and look pretty', as inspired by a comment she had received from a Twitter user, in which she hit out at social media trolls and the judgment of women compared to men in the public eye.
Pleading with her followers to "stop judging others with your patriarchal gaze and start judging yourselves", the singer wrote, "There are wonderful perks of the job of being in the public eye - the money, the glamour, the adoration at times, but there is a dark side to it. There's a hug (sic) amount of pressure particularly on women to appear gorgeous/happy/effortless all the time."
The 38-year-old also reflected on the way in which rapper Chris Brown managed to maintain a career after assaulting then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009.
"I wonder if Caroline was a man she would have been treated in this way? Every relationship scrutinised, every outfit, every big night, every foot wrong (and yes, she did put some feet wrong but I am of the opinion she had bigger undiagnosed illness going on behind the scenes).
"Equality doesn't have to be an illusion, it could be a reality and it's high time something is done to make it that," she concluded.
