Cheryl Cole opens up about X Factor USA axe

Cheryl Cole opens up about X Factor USA axe
Cheryl Cole opens up about X Factor USA axe (Image credit: Doug Peters/PA Photos)

Cheryl Cole has broken her silence over her bust-up with Simon Cowell following her dismissal from The X Factor USA after just four days of filming. Writing in her new book Cheryl: My Story, the Girls Aloud singer revealed how she sent the mogul an expletive-ridden text in which she told him, "I hate you," as well as condemning him for not warning her face to face she was being axed from the show. And she also accused Simon of being more concerned about his business than his friendship with her. "The only reason I was doing the American X Factor was because Simon more or less told me I was doing it," she admitted. Cheryl went on to say in her book that she was told the news by the show's executive producer during a break from filming, citing her Geordie accent as a possible factor. She was also told she still had a place on the British version of the show - which she turned down. "Simon didn't even have the guts to phone or send a message warning me what was coming," Cheryl said. "I was furious with Simon for letting it happen like this. I believed we had a good friendship and I couldn't understand why he just hadn't been straight with me." Her text to the mogul read, "I hate you. I understand you're a businessman, and what I've learned from this is that business means more to you than our friendship." Simon later told her that axing her from the show was 'the worst decision I ever made'. Cheryl was replaced on The X Factor USA by Nicole Scherzinger, who was later dropped from the panel after the first series and is now a judge on X Factor UK.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.