Laura Whitmore felt frightened by Caroline Flack\'s death.
The 34-year-old presenter - who replaced Caroline as the host of \'Love Island\' before her death in February - has admitted she\'s still struggling to come to terms with her friend\'s passing, saying "it\'ll never be right".
Laura shared: "It\'ll never be OK and it\'ll never be right.
"It did scare me. She was so strong-willed and feisty and I remember thinking, \'God, I wish I could be as strong as her\'.
"I felt like if people said things, it wouldn\'t bother her. But obviously it did because everyone is human. I don\'t want to speculate reasons because nobody will ever know. [But] it did frighten me."
Laura also admitted she "couldn\'t cope" with the interest and speculation surrounding her replacing Caroline - who stepped down from the show in December after being arrested for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend - on \'Love Island\'.
Reflecting on the transition, Laura told Cosmopolitan UK magazine: "I love doing live TV. I\'d worked with most of the crew doing \'I\'m a Celebrity...\' and MTV, so it just felt very comfortable.
"The show was the easiest thing. It was everything around it that I couldn\'t cope with.
"When I got the call I was like, \'I need to talk to [boyfriend and \'Love Island\' narrator Iain Stirling], I need to talk to Caroline ...\' It\'s a weird one because you think you should just jump at it.
"Obviously you\'re delighted that ITV trust you to do such a big show, but a friend of yours is also going through hell ... Caroline had messaged me first to say, \'I hope you get it\', which was really nice.
"You\'re like, \'Oh yay, I get to do this but, no, this isn\'t how I want to get to do it\'. It was a really weird way to get a job."
Read the full interview in the June issue of Cosmopolitan - on sale 30th April 2020.
