THE X Factor’s Caroline Flack has revealed her upset at being called Prince Harry’s bit of rough and a “paedophile” for dating ID’s Harry Styles.
In her new autobiography Caroline, 35, tells for the first time about her romance with the prince.
She says: “On a personal level I really like him and he’s a friend.
”Caroline also reveals how she was:
— EXCITED when she first met Prince Harry and they spent hours laughing together.
— FORCED to break up with him when the story of their romance emerged.
— SHOUTED at in the street for dating Harry Styles.
— TOLD she would be shot by a besotted One Direction fan.
— OFFERED £1million to be the face of a cougar website.
Caroline, who charts her rise from kids’ TV presenter to 2014 winner of Strictly Come Dancing, also tells how a 1D fan made a voodoo doll of her.
In the book Caroline explains how she grew close to Prince Harry, 31.
She said: “I knew she was friends with Prince Harry, and I’d never met him, so I thought, ‘Oh that’s quite exciting’, and for a moment I perked up.
“So I was just sitting there and he arrived with a few others in tow and we all spent the evening chatting and laughing.
”Caroline, from Watton, Norfolk, admits: “To meet a prince is so unlikely it would be weird not to acknowledge it. However, once the story got out, that was it. We had to stop seeing each other.
“I was no longer Caroline Flack, TV presenter, I was Caroline Flack, Prince Harry’s bit of rough.
”She says: “The thing about Prince Harry is that he has no choice. He’s not some egotistical rock star who wants loads of attention. That is his life. He didn’t ask for it, he just has to deal with it.
“I think he deals with it very well and he and his brother do great stuff for our country.
”She adds: “I was photographed with him and we did have a friendship.
”And she shocked fans again in 2011, when, aged 31, she dated 17-year-old Harry Styles.
Caroline was then presenting ITV’s The Xtra Factor with Olly Murs. A producer introduced her to Harry, who had got to the X Factor final the year before.
She said: “I already knew that he had a crush on me, he’d made it pretty obvious. He’d said it in magazines and he’d said it to friends.
“It was flattering and I found it amusing. He was a kind of cheeky man/boy with a captivating smile who got what he wanted.”
“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.
“Although it was just a bit of fun we decided it was best to keep it to ourselves, as we were both working for Simon (Cowell).
“We were both single, we got on well and we had a laugh.
”Harry even once stayed over at her house, meeting Caroline’s twin sister Jody and her children.
She said: “He met Jody and the kids (and yes, Jody fancied him too, as did eight-year-old Willow who went to school and told everyone Harry Styles had stayed over).
”Caroline adds: “It was only when it became public knowledge that things turned sour. At the beginning it was all very playful. He joked about being attracted to older women.
“No one seemed to be bothered then about the age difference.
“It began to go wrong when Harry was pictured coming out of my house one morning.
“And once that was out, it was open season. After that 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.”
“You won’t live. Come near and I’ll shoot you.
”Caroline said: “None of us expected it to turn so vicious and truly nasty.
“There was a moment when we just thought, s***, this has gone really dark. So perhaps we did the wrong thing, who knows.
”She reveals she was also offered £1million to be the face of the Cougarlife.com website.
She laughs: “I wasn’t even old enough to be on the site. You had to be 36 and I had just turned 32.
“Until this point I’d been comfortable in my own skin. I was comfortable with my age, with my life, with the way I looked.
“I had never really had any doubts or insecurities about myself. Then I actually started questioning who I really was. Am I fat? Am I old? Am I ugly?
”After the pair split in early 2012, Simon Cowell approached Caroline and asked if she would return for the next series of X Factor.
She said he asked her: “Were you two really in love?
”.Caroline told him: “No, but it was a bit of fun and we weren’t hurting anybody.
” Cowell replied:
“It really astounded me.”
— Storm in a C Cup by Caroline Flack is published by Simon and Schuster on October 22 at £20.
My crush on Olly
And she said he was the main reason she accepted an invitation from Simon Cowell to replace Dermot O’Leary on the show — even though the boss had sacked her from The Xtra Factor spin-off.
She confessed: “In the end it was Olly that swayed it. Dermot was the best and a hard act to follow. But it wouldn’t just be me stepping into his shoes. It would be me and Olly.” Caroline described her feelings for singer Olly, 31, who was X Factor runner-up in 2009.
She said: “I knew Olly Murs, of course I did. What X Factor junkie wouldn’t. I even think I had a little crush on him. He was an X Factor success story.
”In her book, Caroline describes her shock at finding out that wannabes were being auditioned for her Xtra Factor job.
She said: “After three years it was a truly horrible thing to hear. It was a bit like if you’d been fostered and suddenly your foster parents said they weren’t sure about you any more.”
But she confessed she was later pleased about it because it gave her the chance to go on and win Strictly last year.
She admitted getting “a naughty pleasure” telling Cowell “just how good Strictly was” when he offered her The X Factor. She said Dermot called her and said: “You’ve got to do it, Flacky. Don’t think twice.”
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