Welcome back! What made you decide to come back to the show this year and how does it feel to be back?

Well aside from a lot of begging and grovelling on Mr Cowell’s part, it just felt like the right time to come back. I’d had enough time away to appreciate it and get really excited to find new talent again.

Did you have any first day nerves when you started the auditions again or was it like riding a bike?

This time it was like riding a bike. The first time I did it I was terrified, but this time I was more excited.

Is there a particular type of contestant you are looking for this year – a specific genre, category, or music style perhaps?

I’m always looking for somebody fresh. I’m never looking for the next whoever; the next Justin Beiber, the next One Direction. I want somebody to come in that we don’t quite know if we get it or not. Something fresh that we haven’t got.

You once described Simon as your ‘frenemy’ – do you still think of him like that? How would you describe your relationship with him now?

I think Simon’s a bit like an annoying brother. We’re like brother and sister and he’s the annoying one.

We’ve heard that Simon has been winding you up during filming for the auditions – what’s he been doing and have you got your own back?

Simon has his very own way of being very annoying. He knows which buttons to push and he’ll push them, and push them, and push them. But I play the long game. I’m waiting. Don’t worry about me, I’ll get my own back.

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Cheryl and Simon Cowell did a very cute photoshoot on the first day of the X Factor London arena auditions and they’ve been featured on the cover of next week’s Radio Times Magazine, check out two adorable pictures of them from the shoot and the cover of the magazine. More pictures will follow as they get released.

The X Factor > The X Factor UK > Season 11 (2014) > Promotionals > Set 4:

Magazines > 2014 Scans > Radio Times September 5th:

It was all down to her hair, her outfit and a “bit of weight”, apparently.

Simon Cowell has revealed why he sacked Cheryl Cole – now known as Cheryl Fernandez-Versini – from the US version of the X Factor.

He’s told the Radio Times the singer had “lost her confidence” after her divorce from husband Ashley Cole. He admitted “there was something not quite right” about the American version.

It was cancelled in the US after three seasons, however Cheryl is back as a judge on the British version this year.

So what was the problem with the orange and purple outfit she wore on the first day of filming stateside?

“When I saw her I didn’t recognise her. Literally. The hair and outfit were crazy. Just totally crazy.

“I asked her manager, ‘What’s she wearing, what’s happened to her hair?” He was defensive about it. “I haven’t a clue why she turned up like that.”

He added: “She’d put on a bit of weight, but not loads. That wasn’t the issue. The only way I can describe it is that it wasn’t Cheryl sitting in that seat. She’d lost her confidence.”

But he said it wasn’t just Cheryl’s fault the programme got off to a bad start.

“In hindsight I don’t think that first day worked anyway. There was something not quite right about that show in America.”

And these days all appears to be forgiven. He called her “beautiful”. Fernandez-Versini, who got married and changed her name last month, has already revealed she sent the music mogul a “very abusive” text message after one of his staff delivered the news she was being dropped.

“If I could go back in time I would have kept her on the show. It was stupid doing what I did.

“I didn’t sack her personally. That was the second-biggest mistake I made. When you’re under pressure you make stupid mistakes,” he said.

She later told him that he had “betrayed” her.

Cowell told the magazine: “The worst it got between us was when she sent me a text message.

“It was like when you get a really horrible letter from an ex-girlfriend. The general tone was something along the lines of, ‘You’ve hurt me, you’ve let me down, I can never forgive you’. I shrank.”

It seems she isn’t willing to take any chances in future and she’s warned him never to let her down again.

“Just let him try,” she said, “He’s more ruthless than me but I’m stronger in my opinions; I believe what I’m saying.”

The X Factor returns with both Simon and Cheryl on the judging panel on Saturday 30 August.

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Check out two sets of gorgeous X Factor promos shot during the arena auditions and bootcamp a few weeks ago, Cheryl is looking like the boss! The solo shots were shot during the auditions and the group shots were done just before bootcamp.

The X Factor > The X Factor UK > Season 11 (2014) > Promotionals > Set 1:

The X Factor > The X Factor UK > Season 11 (2014) > Promotionals > Set 2:

Hell will probably have long frozen over before there is an X Factor panel of jostling egos that actually likes each other.

Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole/Fernandez-Versini (she’d like to be known by the latter surname but everyone uses the former) may have finally buried the hatchet after he humiliatingly sacked her from the American X Factor but she and Louis Walsh still aren’t, shall we say, cosy.

‘They have history’, groans Simon as he looks at Cheryl on one side of him and Louis on the other. ‘They don’t really like each other.’

When Cheryl was in Girls Aloud, Louis was the band’s manager, although – as she once said – he didn’t manage them very well; they pretty much did it all themselves.

Harsh? Undoubtedly. Untrue? Probably not. The Westlife and Boyzone manager later admitted that he struggled to deal with girls. But that didn’t stop him having a go back at Cheryl. ‘I am a better manager than she is a singer,’ he later said of his one-time protégée, and ‘two words: voice coach’. The spat was very public and more than a touch childish but it has carried on this year.

Cheryl did not want Louis – who insisted he was leaving last year – back on the panel when she agreed to make her return. Simon overruled her; there are some benefits to being the boss. ‘I can’t imagine not having him here,’ he shrugs.

So how are things now? Well, not good given the frostiness in the air when we catch up with the new X Factor judging panel. In their presence you rather feel like a referee trying to stop children bickering. I ask if they’ve been out for a drink to build bridges. Cheryl snorts. ‘No!’

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Watch highlights (only Cheryl’s parts) of Cheryl’s return to The X Factor UK this weekend to assist Gary Barlow at judges houses. You can view HD screencaps here.

Gary Barlow has reportedly pulled a bit of a fast one on Simon Cowell.

It has been widely rumoured for weeks that the star would be assisted at his X Factor judges houses round by his old Take That bandmate Robbie Williams but it seems he has another plan up his sleeve.

The Sun has reported that instead of dad to be, Gary will instead be helped by none other than the beautiful Cheryl Cole.

The ‘Under The Sun’ hitmaker of course sensationally left the ITV show last year, when she landed a job on the US version. She was later sacked by Simon Cowell and said she would never, ever return.

It seems she may have had a change of heart because an insider told the newspaper yesterday that Cole is all ready to work with Gaz when he whittles down his final hopefuls this week.

They explained:

“Only Gary’s intimate inner circle know. He hasn’t even discussed it with Simon or ITV bosses. It’s been seriously top secret stuff.

“They’re all under the impression it’s going to be Robbie. No one even noticed the dates for the recording clashed with Robbie’s new solo tour.”

Cheryl and Gary are close pals of course, after they and a host of other famous famous climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief back in January 2011. They have remained in contact ever since and earlier this year performed together at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

It is thought that they hatched their secret plan after that concert and the source claimed that Chez was only too happy to keep it all a secret fro, Simon. They added:

“She loved the mischief of it.”

Story developing…

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Cher Lloyd has apologised to former X Factor mentor Cheryl Cole for seemingly questioning her singing ability.

The ‘Want U Back’ star, who finished fourth on the 2010 series under Cole’s guidance, said in a recent radio appearance that she would only perform with the Girls Aloud singer if she sang live and also hinted that she uses Auto-Tune.

In response, Cole wrote on Twitter: “Be Careful who you kick on your way up .. They kick you twice as hard on your way back down.. #unappreciationisugly.”

Lloyd has since attempted to quell their feud by claiming that her “little joke” had gotten out of hand and reaffirming her respect for the ex-judge.

“Basically I said something on radio which I shouldn’t have said,” she explained on Daybreak this morning (February 17). “It wasn’t intended to sound as bad as it did.

“All I was saying is that I would love to perform with her live and then I made a little joke… I think it just got a bit blown out of proportion, so I just want to say sorry if she found that offensive.”

Lloyd continued: “At the end of the day she was the person who got me to where I am today, so if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be sat here.”

The 18-year-old also accepted that she should learn to reign herself in, saying: “[Age] is not an excuse, I still should be on top of it. I’m aware that I’m in the public eye now so word vomit is not good.”

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