Laura Whitmore reveals her 'terrifying' stalker experience and opens up about grieving Caroline Flack
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Laura Whitmore has opened up about the darker side of being a woman on TV, from receiving threatening stalker letters to endless online abuse. But now, rather than just accepting it all because of her position in the media, she is ready to start "calling out the sh*t" while "reclaiming" her power in new roles. Which we're very here for.
When the ex-Love Island host, catapulted in the limelight with her presenting gig on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! NOW! after years of work, first started receiving the letters at the TV studio from an anonymous man, she didn't take them seriously.
"I don't know if I knew it was stalking initially, and I was embarrassed about it," she told The Telegraph in a new interview. The same man than set up a number of fake social media accounts to bombard her with messages online, before the letters started arriving at her home.
Whitmore said it was "terrifying" to think the stalker knew where she lived, and when she went to the police, says they were "so unhelpful", and implied this type of harassment was expected for someone in her industry.
While legal constraints mean she hasn't been able to go into too much detail, she said it more "went away" rather then being resolved. But it is "only now" that she can see the experience as not just something that was less than ideal, or fair game for someone in the public eye, but as something potentially criminal (with cyberstalking, online harassment and incels, of which she realised any woman can be victim to, also the subject of her new ITV documentary series).
"Social media wasn't as big as it is now. I didn't really know it was stalking or what it was, I just knew it was scary," she added of her own experience. Whitmore also explained that, after years of just being the smiling face of a show, her new role - which also sees her serve as producer - is her way of "reclaiming my power" and stepping out of her comfort zone.
Whitmore's new-found power also comes after feeling she had to stay quiet and get the job done (despite not being that ok herself) in the wake of her late friend Caroline Flack dying by suicide. "I feel I had a small little taster of what it was like for her," she said, reflecting on being the face of a show as big as Love Island, up for public scrutiny. But now she wants to challenge the notion that presenters should just have to accept and deal with online abuse. "No one is getting paid enough to take what some people have to... I wasn’t getting what I’ve seen other people get. I’ll never know what Caroline went through."
Whitmore, who was offered for the first time in her career (and has taken up) a therapist early on in her current role, didn't previously want to be seen as demanding or weak for asking for help or expressing what she wanted. Today, she is determined to shape her own path, despite what people may think about her new more serious position, while addressing what she's not okay with.
"I have a lovely life, but I will also call out the sh*t, because I hope I'll be able to continue to do this for years and it will get better and I'll have more power. I've definitely got more power now than I did 10 years ago in the industry," she said.
We love to hear it.
Laura Whitmore Investigates will be available on ITVX on Thursday 27 July
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