Lottie Tomlinson Detailed How She And Her Brother Louis Desperately Tried To Help Their Sister Before Her Tragic Death
One Direction star Louis Tomlinson’s younger sister Lottie Tomlinson has bravely opened up about their family tragedies in her new book, Lucky Girl: Family, Falling and Finding My Way.
And in Lucky Girl, Lottie recalls how she and Louis desperately tried to save their little sister after noticing that she had gone down a bad path while struggling to cope with the loss of their mom.
“I think that was the first time I realized how bad the situation was with Fizz, and as time went on, we noticed her distancing herself from the family or going missing for a few days and not responding to messages,” Lottie writes. “We could also see that Fizz was starting to hang around people who we didn’t think were a good influence on her.”
Lottie says that she and Louis “really had to dig deep” to try to understand their sister, and admits that they both “went through stages of frustration” because they were so desperate for her “to be healthy and happy.”
Eventually, Félicité was asked to leave her boarding school, and while Lottie invited her to move into her London apartment, Félicité declined.
“She didn’t want that knowing that she wouldn’t have the freedom to escape in the ways she knew how,” Lottie explains. “I found it hard that she didn’t want my help, even if what I was offering wasn’t going to solve her problems. At the end of the day, I wasn’t Mum, I couldn’t give her what she needed, but it obviously didn’t stop me from trying.”
Félicité ended up temporarily moving in with One Direction’s former hair and makeup artist and Tomlinson family friend Lou Teasdale, and Lottie tried to get her sister on the right path by arranging work for her.
She and Louis also encouraged Félicité to see a therapist, but after one meeting with one, she refused to go back. They also sent their sister to rehab “a couple of times,” although Lottie admits that she “never thought” the issue was to do with addiction.
“I’ve always felt she turned to drugs because of her grief,” she writes. “Because it offered her a temporary release. We sent her there thinking we could get her back onto a good path, and after those stints, she’d come out a more positive person, but it was only a matter of time before she reverted to the only way she knew how to cope.”
Lottie says that the subsequent “invasive” media storm that followed Félicité’s death “added another sad level to our already awful grief” as she recalled the way that the public seemingly judged Félicité for taking drugs.
“So many people were quick to judge Fizz without fully understanding the situation, or the pain she had been through,” she says.
Lottie goes on to say that she started to see a therapist for the first time after the tragedy, and it was then that she realized that she also hadn’t processed her mom’s death.
Offering a glimmer of hope to others who have been bereaved, Lottie acknowledges that she once thought that she would never experience happiness again.
While she still misses her mom and sister every day, Lottie says that she has created a beautiful life with her family, and even goes so far as to consider herself “lucky” in spite of all of her hardships.
Elsewhere in Lucky Girl, Lottie opens up about the tragic death of her mom, details the two years that she spent on tour with One Direction when she was just 16 years old, recalls how her family’s life changed with Louis’s ascent to superstardom, and shares how she carved a successful influencer career for herself.
Lottie also offers readers plenty of incredibly valuable tools and advice for navigating grief, and discusses her role as an ambassador for Sue Ryder, a bereavement support charity.
Lucky Girl: Family, Falling and Finding My Way by Lottie Tomlinson is available to buy now.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-800-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.
