“Love Island” host Caroline Flack’s death has been ruled a suicide by a U.K. coroner.
The television presenter died Saturday at the age of 40. On Wednesday, the Poplar Coroner’s Court confirmed to People that Flack had died of suicide by hanging.
“On Tuesday, 18th of February 2020, an autopsy was performed at Hackney Mortuary by Professor Michael Shiff who gave a provisional cause of death as one by suspension by ligature,” Coroner’s officer Sandra Polson said in a statement to People. “London Ambulance Service arrived on the scene and took over CPR from the police, however, their patient could not be revived.”
The British television presenter and radio host stepped down as host of the hit U.K. reality dating show after she was charged with assaulting her boyfriend, 27-year-old Lewis Burton in December. Flack pleaded not guilty and was due to stand trial on March 4.
As part of the inquest into Flack’s death, her family has released an unpublished Instagram post that Flack wrote weeks before her death but was advised not to make public, according to The Guardian.
In the drafted post, Flack wrote that her “whole world and future was swept from under [her] feet” after the assault charges were made against her. She also wrote that she “took responsibility for what happened that night” but maintained that she “was NOT a domestic abuser.”
A family lawyer told the BBC that Flack’s death was a suicide on Saturday, but it remained unconfirmed until the Coroner’s Court performed an autopsy Wednesday.
The official statement from her family to the Press Association reads: “We can confirm that our Caroline passed away today, the 15th of February. We would ask that the press both respect the privacy of the family at this difficult time.”