Cheryl Cole: Cowell right to sack me from US X Factor

3 July 2014

Cheryl Cole has said Simon Cowell was right to sack her from the US version of The X Factor in 2011 but should have told her to her face.

"I can talk about this because I'm OK about it now. But I went through hell and it literally drove me mad," she said.

The 31-year-old was axed from the US talent show weeks into shooting the series and before it went to air.

"Now I can say that Simon was right to get rid of me," she told Elle UK, external.

"I wasn't well in the head when that was going on, so it wasn't going to work. But he wasn't right not to tell me to my face."

Earlier this year Cole won a payout from the producers of The X Factor USA after settling out of court. The sum was not revealed.

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Cheryl Cole wore an orange and purple outfit to her first day at The X Factor USA

The singer also revealed she sent a text message to Simon Cowell after she was dropped from the programme.

The expletive littered text said: "F**k you, F**k Fox, F**k the orange and purple outfit. F**k the big hair. F**k the UK X Factor. F**k you all. I hate you."

She told Elle UK: "I became so desensitised, you could say terrible things to me and I wouldn't even think about it.

"I'd read awful stuff about myself and not blink. I shut down because I didn't know what else to do."

@officialmelb/Instagram

This year's X Factor judges are Louis Walsh, Mel B, Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell (Left-Right)

Cole is now back on The X Factor in the UK, judging alongside Cowell, Louis Walsh and Mel B.

In her interview with Elle UK, she claimed she felt as though she was having a nervous breakdown last year.

"It only hit me at the beginning of 2013 that I'd completely lost myself. I'd look in a mirror and think, 'Who the hell is she?'" she said.

"I didn't know what I thought or felt about anything, couldn't make decisions - I didn't even know what to eat or drink.

"Something was seriously wrong: it felt like a nervous breakdown."

Reuters

She added: "I had to stop, get out of my life I'd been living and find myself again. The consequences if I didn't were just too frightening."

Cole divorced her footballer husband Ashley Cole in 2010 and has said she is now a stronger person.

"I thought I had every box ticked, career and personal. I was the first to get married," she said.

"I was the one everyone thought would be the first to have a baby and then the rug got pulled out from under me.

"I've learned that there is no such thing as a plan. You can't make them."

The former Girls Aloud star said she was "really lucky" that her past experiences have not broken her and no longer cares what people think about her.

"It actually taught me everything I'm going to need for the rest of my life," she said.