The X Factor host Caroline Flack: I feel incredibly lucky

What a difference a year can make. 

In the summer of 2014, things weren’t looking great for Caroline Flack. Axed as host of The X Factor’s spin-off show The Xtra Factor, it seemed her chances of landing major presenting roles were slim.

A career trajectory that had climbed steadily from Escape From Scorpion Island (2007) through Gladiators (2008-9) and the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! spin-off show (2009-10) looked as if it might have reached its ceiling. 

Since then, however, everything has changed. Last autumn leggy Caroline slipped into her dancing shoes to join Strictly Come Dancing. Her fancy footwork and sunny personality endeared her to judges and voters alike and she was crowned champ. It was a career-rejuvenating episode that brought Caroline back into the limelight. 

As a result, in April Simon Cowell  named her co-host of the main show along with her pal Olly Murs. Caroline and Olly have since proved themselves, bringing a younger and more flirtatious vibe to the reality show in the wake of Dermot O’Leary’s departure. 

By any reckoning, the last 12 months have been spectacular, with Caroline landing a rumoured six-figure sum to pen her autobiography, Storm In A C Cup. But it seems even she has a hard time getting her head around her success. 

“It’s been a crazy year, which has gone really quickly,” says Caroline. “Last year I was walking away from The X Factor and it was a big part of my life. I’d closed that chapter and then I went on to do Strictly, which was obviously incredible, and now I’ve walked back into The X Factor again. So it’s been a strange experience, but a lovely one. It feels like I’ve got two boyfriends and I’m between both of them.”

Competing in Strictly helped Caroline understand how it feels to be judged. “I know what it is like to be a contestant now. I know how they’re feeling,” she says. 

As a result she’s conscious that she and Olly can’t muck about as they did on The Xtra Factor. “You do have to be a bit more serious, because we’ve been side stage with the relatives, which we weren’t before,” she says. “So if their brother or sister or son or daughter is [onstage] getting upset, then we can’t be there going ‘ha ha’ and doing a silly dance.

Our job is to be there for them.”

Landing one of TV’s biggest hosting gigs was naturally going to engender nerves in Caroline. But it wasn’t facing the crowds so much as working with Simon Cowell that struck most fear into her, she says. He was in the States when she hosted The Xtra Factor. 

Bringing added value to The X Factor is Caroline’s chemistry with Olly, about which there has been speculation on social media. There’s no denying the pair fuel the rumour mill, too. Caroline has admitted to fancying Olly when they first met and recently declared they were a bit more than just friends – without going into detail. They also went in for a romantic kiss – clearly as a joke – on The X Factor this month. 

“When you get to do the show with your best pal, that’s quite unheard of,” she says. “Like getting your dream job with your best friend. We love each other.” 

Their relationship is certainly part of what’s made them a hit, but both have been in long-term relationships during their friendship. Caroline is thought to be single after her romance with music manager Jack Street broke up last year.

But she may just be keeping quiet since the media storm three years ago when she dated One Direction’s Harry Styles, 15 years her junior. It sent social media into meltdown and saw Caroline the target of online abuse from 1D fans and the object of paparazzi attention. 

Caroline, who has just turned 36 and has a twin, Jody, was brought up in Thetford, Norfolk, the youngest of four children. After leaving home at 16 for stage school, she got her break on Channel 4’s Bo’ Selecta in 2002.

This year has been Caroline’s best to date. Alongside The X Factor she also presented the rebooted Love Island on ITV2, and in the New Year, she is rumoured to be treading the boards in the West End musical Chicago. 

“It doesn’t get much better than this,” she says. “I’m working with my best pal, working on a show I love and we’re laughing all the time. I feel incredibly lucky.”

The X Factor, Tonight, 8pm,ITV