Is Louis Walsh the most toxic and bitter man on TV? KATIE HIND reveals why he ... trends now
Their bromance was once the most talked about in Britain. And when Simon Cowell launched his new talent show, The X Factor, back in 2004, he knew exactly who he wanted at his side: fellow music mogul Louis Walsh.
The two men had worked together before, for more than a decade, namely with Irish boybands Boyzone and Westlife.
The pair were regulars at Mayfair’s Cipriani restaurant, where they would confide in each other and plot their next moves over intimate dinner dates.
Yes, there were ups and downs — plenty of them — with each as petulant and colourful as the last.
In 2006, Walsh, who is now 71, sensationally quit the ITV talent show following rows with both Cowell and fellow judge Sharon Osbourne. She’d drenched him with water during a live recording, and Cowell went on to describe him as an ‘idiot’ and ‘stupid’.
The list of those who’ve received a lashing from Walsh reads like a showbusiness roll call, with Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy and most of the bands he’s represented over the years included
Walsh was eventually persuaded back but, a year later, Cowell sacked him again, this time to make way for U.S. dancer and choreographer Brian Friedman, who was briefly drafted in to the judging panel.
Within weeks, they’d kissed and made up with Walsh resuming his seat at the judges’ table and earning a reported £1million per series. He finally left in 2017, the year before the series ended for good.
But today, the two men do not speak. Cowell, no longer a social butterfly, is said to have distanced himself from Walsh. Walsh, meanwhile, will tell anyone who will listen that his former best friend has ditched him.
‘Louis doesn’t like Simon and he is very open about it,’ says a friend. ‘He can’t seem to understand why Simon has ghosted him. OK, so Simon doesn’t have a phone [he famously ditched his mobile in 2018], but for him to not be in touch with someone he worked with for decades is strange.’
The friend adds: ‘Louis can’t get hold of him, so you can imagine how acidic his tongue has become. It’s tiring. Simply put, life is too short for the bitterness and nastiness and everyone is a potential target.’
Indeed, they are.
The list of those who’ve received a lashing from Walsh reads like a showbusiness roll call, with Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy and most of the bands he’s represented over the years included.
This week he was on Celebrity Big Brother — where last night Walsh revealed that he had suffered a rare form of blood cancer which has now been cured — alongside his old nemesis Sharon Osbourne. In one episode, he insulted former X Factor contestants and Irish twins, John and Edward Grimes, aka Jedward. He described them as ‘vile’ before boasting he ‘got £5 million from them’.
It sparked a war of words with the now 32-year-olds. They hit back, branding Walsh an ‘evil manipulator’ who tried ‘to make us sign our name and life away in dodgy contracts to people he was great friends with’ and ‘forced us into an office to pay £70,000-plus to one of his own PR workers’. They also accused him of being a ‘cold hearted b*****d’ who didn’t send flowers after their mother’s death in 2019.
This isn’t the first time these two parties have traded insults. Their paths first crossed in 2009 when Walsh, then an X Factor judge, was appointed Jedward’s ‘mentor’. Seven years later he described them as ‘the most embarrassing thing to happen to him’.
While Britain seems very much on the side of Team Jedward, I can reveal that some may think Walsh’s outburst was justified. The duo did indeed owe £70,000 to a London-based public relations firm called Hackford Jones, which was the bill for two years’ work done on their behalf in 2010 and 2011.
Cheryl Tweedy is another sworn enemy of Walsh. She and her Girls Aloud bandmates loathed him since the day he was appointed their manager after they won ITV talent show Popstars
Walsh, today reportedly worth £117million, was also represented by the now defunct organisation and was close to the publicist who looked after the brothers.
One associate of the company, which at the time also worked for boy band One Direction, says: ‘Louis was very friendly with the Hackford Jones [people] and he was cross that the boys hadn’t paid their bills for two years.
‘They had done a lot of work for Jedward who, as you can probably imagine, were quite high maintenance. Louis is fuming that they didn’t pay their way so put huge amounts of pressure on them to do so. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.’
A friend of Walsh’s also called me this week to reiterate that he had indeed made £5million from Jedward — but for them, not himself.
‘He took the standard cut but they became millionaires because of Louis,’ the friend said.
That didn’t stop Jedward’s former X Factor co-stars jumping to their defence on Wednesday amid the feud.
Katie Waissel, who appeared on the talent show in 2010, took to social media to say: ‘I can unequivocally state that you are by no means “vile”, if anything you are both absolutely the contrary to this! I stand firmly behind you in your corner, always.’
She also reignited an uncomfortable issue for ITV — namely claims of ‘abuse, manipulation and coercion’ that allegedly
