X Factor's Kitty was 'honeytrap'

X Factor's Kitty was 'honeytrap'
X Factor's Kitty was 'honeytrap' (Image credit: PA)

X Factor contestant Kitty Brucknell worked as a honeytrap for a private detective agency, it has been reported. The singer wowed the judges on Saturday's episode of the show singing Lady Gaga's Edge Of Glory before being voted through to the next round. Dalbir Virdee told The Sun he watched the ITV1 show and recognised Kitty as the same woman who approached him three years ago after being hired by his ex-wife. He said she contacted him online before arranging to meet him on a date at upmarket store Harvey Nichols, in central London. He said: "I had a feeling I was being set up. We had champagne, which she spilled down her front. I realise it was a ploy to get me to rub it off her." Mr Virdee said photographs of him with Kitty were later used in his divorce. Kitty, 26, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was one of the stars of the first episode of the hit show which was watched by a peak audience of 12.6 million - matching the record for the highest viewing figures for the opening night. The show saw the debut of new judges Gary Barlow, Tulisa Contostavlos and Kelly Rowland, who joined veteran Louis Walsh.

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.