DEVASTATED Olly Murs broke down in tears in front of strangers as he struggled to get over Caroline Flack’s death.
He said he cried when he was asked to speak about the presenter in front of her friends after they completed a trek to raise money in her name for the Samaritans.
The group raised £30,000 in the 24 peaks in 24 hours challenge, and the pop star revealed they bonded over dinner following the walk.
Olly, 37, said: “It was amazing. It was tough, physically and mentally, to go up and climb the Lake District – try and do 24 peaks in 24 hours.
“We managed to do 18. We couldn’t do 24.
“We didn’t anticipate the group was going to be from different levels of fitness, and also mentally and physically all of us are different.
“I thought I was really tough.”
He continued: “We smashed the walks and I got to the end and I thought ‘oh, I’ve dealt with this quite well emotionally’, I thought I’d be quite emotional.
“There was times when we spoke about Caroline. There was times when we reminisced on stories because all of us knew her differently, and then we went out for dinner that night.
“And, this completely threw me off guard, one of the girls got up and started talking and was saying thank you so much to everyone.
“And all of a sudden it all went round the table and everyone had to say something. And I was so caught off guard, and they asked me to say something and I just couldn’t speak.
“ I just broke down and cried the whole time in front of all these strangers that I don’t really know.
“And I was just like ‘what’s going on’. Grief is so tough and even now it’s really difficult to even think that we did a climb for someone that in my eyes is still here.”
The Voice judge said he’s still struggling to come to terms with Caroline’s suicide after she died in her North London home last February aged 40.
Speaking on The Joe Wicks podcast, he added: “It doesn’t make sense that she’s not here. It doesn’t compute yet.
“I’m still coming to terms with the idea that she’s not here. That’s really weird.
“When we were on the climb we were just sat chatting – me and Lou (Teasdale), who is one of her closest friends – and we were both like ‘this is so weird, what are we doing, we are walking for Caroline, this doesn’t make sense, she should be here, and we shouldn’t be doing this’.