Sharon Osbourne: 'I can't watch the X Factor'

Sharon Osbourne: 'I can't watch the X Factor'
Sharon Osbourne: 'I can't watch the X Factor' (Image credit: Ken McKay)

Sharon Osbourne has revealed she can't bring herself to watch The X Factor - because she misses it too much. The TV judge stepped down from the ITV competition in 2008 and was replaced by Cheryl Cole. "I miss X Factor terribly - I still can't watch it," she told the Daily Mirror. Sharon admitted she decided to leave the show because she had enough, hinting her relationship with Dannii Minogue prompted her to leave. "I walked from X Factor because I couldn't stand the b******t any more. Simon Cowell wanted me to stay but my pride wouldn't let me sit alongside Dannii Minogue. I couldn't stand her," she said. "It'll do fantastically well in America but I won't be a part of it. Done it, been there, seen what it tastes like." Sharon - who now sits on the panel for America's Got Talent - admitted she doesn't plan to be a TV judge forever. "I don't want to be a judge much longer. It's nice to be liked, but hard work trying to maintain that profile," she said. The judge also revealed that she believes Cheryl Cole will bounce back after her split from her husband Ashley. "She's a young woman, blessed with talent and beauty, she's got it all going for her - she's 26, she's got no kids and she made a mistake, time to move on," Sharon told the Daily Mirror. She added: "We all get one love of our life who hurts us, it's not usually the one we walk down the aisle with. Cheryl's a self-made woman and should be proud of herself, and she's surrounded by people who love her."

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.