A wellness doctor was called to Caroline Flack’s aid the night before her first court appearance amid concerns the former Love Island presenter was “in the middle of a crisis”.

Dr Tamsin Lewis, from the Lanserhof Clinic in Mayfair, said she was contacted on December 17 2019 by one of Flack’s team ahead of her court appearance where she was accused of assaulting her boyfriend, former tennis player and model Lewis Burton.

In a written statement, read at Poplar Coroner’s Court, Dr Lewis described how Flack was “incredibly distressed” in the London hotel room and needed some sleeping aids.

Dr Lewis, who said she did not know the former Strictly Come Dancing winner’s celebrity, said: “I was escorted to her room – she was very distressed and tearful.

“She was scrolling the media reports on her phone.

“She had a bandaged finger and said she damaged her hand with a fight with her boyfriend, but said it was nothing more than a lover’s tiff, heightened by alcohol.”

Dr Lewis said she “spent much of the time listening to her concerns about the current media storm”, as well as details about her relationships and her family.

Dr Lewis said: “Her mood appeared low with a reactive affect, for example every time her phone notified her.

“She reported having panicky feelings all day … a sense of impending doom. She did not hint at suicidal thoughts.

“She said she had been drinking excessively to numb herself. She said sleep had been impossible.”

Dr Lewis said Flack told her she had taken recreational drugs socially but not recently.

Dr Lewis said she received a subsequent message from Flack some days later, while she was on holiday, saying: “How can one person cope with this?”

Flack denied assaulting her boyfriend, a charge Mr Burton said he was also keen to see dropped.

The inquest heard how she originally thought the case might be dropped, but discovered prosecutors would press ahead with the trial in March just before she died by suicide on February 15 2020.

The inquest continues.