Cheryl Cole won't be back on X factor, says Tulisa

The X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos has said that Cheryl Cole will not be returning to the show, despite speculation that she might have made a comeback during the live finals. Speaking to The Sun the N-Dubz singer dismissed reports that the Girls Aloud star might be replacing her as the competition reaches its peak. "I can 100 per cent reassure fans I'll be sitting in that judge's chair in the final. Cheryl and I talk and laugh at the rumours about her. We've sat down and had the conversation at her birthday party," she said. "People are going to make up rumour after rumour. It's been intense." Tulisa - who is mentoring the groups in this year's show also admitted that she had won Simon Cowell's seal of approval. "He calls me Trouble, and likes what I'm doing," she revealed. "Simon has a very dry sense of humour. He doesn't have to sit there and go, 'You are amazing' and 'You are doing great'. He'll just send a text with a simple thing like 'Trouble's taking over' and you get it." The 23-year-old added that being on the show had made her "softer". "It's brought out more of an emotional side of me," Tulisa said. I'm less kind of like, 'I don't need to care what people think'." The singer will be seen choosing her final four groups in Greece this weekend as the show reaches the judges houses stage.

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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.