Danny Cipriani is taking an extended break from social media to mourn Caroline Flack

Danny shared his last WhatsApp contact with Caroline - who affectionately nicknamed him 'black dot' because of his profile picture on the messaging service - in which she told him she was "just OK" because of her impending court case for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton.

He captioned the post: "Black dot. Before i start. This is my grieving process. Which is talking. A lot. Which my friends and family and teammates have had to take this last 10 days because I'm grieving. And I'm grieving hard. Hence I'm talking a lot. I'm not sure I'd be strong enough if I didn't understand or see myself in her.

"Pain is pain. It doesn't matter if you've lost a cat. Or been called a name. No ones pain is worse or less. Because it is individual to them and how they take it.(sic)"

Danny - who spoke out about Caroline and the bond they shared in an emotional Instagram video last week - went on to explain his plan to step back from social media during the 40-day period of Lent, and admitted he hoped the 'Love Island' presenter would have been proud of him.

He continued: "She was kind beyond belief. And she would think i am crazy doing all this. But i know she would be proud.

"I'm taking lent off social media. Thank you all for the kind messages. And all the lovely response. Thank you for the bad response. It's my story. And i did it for me. Then her - she wasn't allowed to talk to her BF throughout the case because of the law. He wanted the charges dropped. They wanted to pursue.

"I am not pointing fingers. The CPS and police do a good job. Just saying we can't always do a good job. This is my grieving process. Our greatest strength is our greatest weakness(sic)"

Before signing off, Danny explained he has disabled comments on his profile but won't be quitting the platform for good.

He wrote: "ps - I was shown how to disable comments. So I'm going to do so on this post. Because it's for me and my grieving process. But in a month i will be back on social because that's 2020 and this is me navigating my way through life (sic)"