JESY Nelson has hit out at The X Factor and former show judge Gary Barlow who she revealed left her sobbing on stage in 2011.
The 29-year-old slammed Simon Cowell’s talent series in a shocking interview saying it failed to support her when she was viciously trolled.
Jesy told how she believed everyone “hated” her and that chart topper Gary’s scathing review of her audition made her want to leave the show.
After initially being eliminated as a solo performer, Jesy was later brought back and placed in newly formed girl group Little Mix alongside Perrie Edwards, Jade Thirwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock.
Though the band triumphed in the final Jesy had already been horrendously attacked online and said in an emotional interview: “When I was struggling, I didn’t feel there was anyone I could talk to.
“We were like babies – Perrie was 17, I was 20. I’m hoping programmes like this are now taking more responsibility. It’s so important because nobody prepares you for what you’re about to go through.”
She added: “Gary hated me. He was like, ‘I found that audition terr-i-ble.’
“I said to my mum, ‘I’m not coming back on the X Factor, I’m not doing that again.’
“(Host) Dermot O’Leary was like, ‘Why are you crying, you got through’.’
The pop beauty — who took an overdose in 2013 after relentless abuse from trolls — told how her struggle with trolling reached a head two years later when she was “consumed” by online cruelty and stuck in a vicious cycle of extreme dieting.
She said after Little Mix returned to The X Factor for a guest appearance in November 2013 the wave of comments that followed left her so desperate she took an overdose.
She remembered: “It’s like a drug. I was reading it [the online abuse] every day.
“The minute I got up it was the first thing I did. I’d type in ‘Jesy Nelson’ and then ‘Jesy Nelson fat’ or ‘Jesy Nelson ugly’, and read what everyone said about me.
“I felt everybody hated me.
“I didn’t know what I was doing wrong, and it consumed me.”
Speaking in an interview with The Guardian, she added: “(After The X Factor appearance) I thought, what is the f***ing point? I’m starving myself. I’ve drunk Diet Coke for a week and I’m still getting called fat.
“I went into a really dark place and did what I did.”
An X Factor spokesperson has responded to Jesy’s comments and said: “Duty of care is of the utmost importance to us.
“We have measures to ensure contestants are supported, including having a psychologist available at all times.”
After winning The X Factor in 2011, Little Mix went on to become the ITV show’s biggest success story after One Direction.
Triple Brit Award winners, they have had five No1s in the UK and 30 Top 40 singles, and they are the only girl group to spend 100 weeks in the UK Top 10.
Jesy — who is now on the brink of releasing her first solo single — is adamant that her bandmates were supportive of her throughout her struggle.
But she revealed the same cannot be said of members of the chart-topping group’s management team who she believes were glad to see the back of her.
She said: “Certain people on my team didn’t care. I’m not talking about the girls. There were people on my team who knew how I was feeling and didn’t give a s**t.
“They just weren’t bothered. There was an energy when I walked into a room. I felt there were certain people on my team who just didn’t want me to be there.”
Source: The Sun
