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Cheryl Cole: 'Simon Cowell was right to get rid of me' from US X Factor

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Cheryl Cole has said that Simon Cowell was right to sack her from the American version of The X Factor back in 2011.The former Girls Aloud singer, who was replaced by pop princess Nicole Scherzinger just weeks into the show before it even went on air, has also revealed that she "wasn't well" at the time.

cheryl cole
Cheryl Cole has admitted that Simon Cowell was right to let her go from US X Factor

"I wasn't well in the head when that was going on, so it wasn't going to work," the star told Elle magazine. "But he wasn't right not to tell me to my face," she added. "I can talk about this because I'm OK about it now. But I went through hell and it literally drove me mad. 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."

She told the magazine: "Now I can say that Simon was right to get rid of me. "Cheryl, who is happily back on X Factor's judging panel in the UK, also talked about having a difficult time last year, which she says, "felt like a nervous breakdown"."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?'", the 31-year-old revealed in the August issue of the magazine.

simon cowell
Former Girls Aloud Singer Cheryl has revealed she went through what felt like a breakdown last year

"Something was seriously wrong: it felt like a nervous breakdown. 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. "Thankfully, Cheryl is in a better place now. "I thought I had every box ticked, career and personal. I was the first to get married. 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," she said.