Former X Issue star Katie Waissel has hit out at Simon Cowell after he defended himself in a current interview over the dying of Liam Payne.

Waissel, who was on the identical sequence as Payne and One Path in 2010, has accused the music mogul, 66, of presenting a ‘distorted and incomplete account of the fact skilled by many’ contestants on The X Issue throughout his current interview.

Cowell’s crew don’t settle for the criticisms directed at him.

In recent times the therapy of younger contestants on The X Issue has come beneath the microscope, with former stars of the present alleging their experiences have been exploitative and damaging.

Waissel wrote within the wake of Payne’s dying: ‘If Simon Cowell dare put a press release out on the guts wrenching, tragic lack of my expensive and darling pal Liam, he can be a idiot…

She accused the present of ‘failure to prioritise the emotional and bodily welfare’ of artists and anxious with ‘earnings reasonably than the individuals’.

In 2021, Waissel revealed that she sought remedy for post-traumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD) after struggling panic assaults and suicidal ideas within the wake of the sequence.

Within the current interview Cowell opened up about Payne’s dying, defending himself towards these criticisms over his half within the One Path star’s childhood after launching him to fame on The X Issue.

Payne, who died in October 2024 after falling from the balcony of a Buenos Aires resort whereas beneath the affect of medicine, first discovered fame on the age of 16 on the singing present.

He initially auditioned in 2008 however was informed by Cowell it was not his time, and he ought to return in a number of years, which he did in 2010.

Within the interview, referenced by Waissel, Cowell defended himself towards criticisms from former X Issue stars and followers of Payne who imagine the music mogul wronged those that appeared on the present.

‘I don’t learn any of these items as a result of if I did, you’d simply torture your self,’ Cowell informed the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast when requested whether or not it was ‘hurtful’ when individuals landed on him as somebody responsible for Payne’s dying.

‘The thought that you’re primarily liable for anyone’s life, 10 years after you’ve signed somebody? You may’t try this,’ Cowell defined.

Now Waissel has taken to social media with a prolonged and demanding assertion towards Cowell.

‘Whereas he expresses private unhappiness and remorse, his statements current a distorted and incomplete account of the fact skilled by many people who have been held through contract beneath his constructions,’ she mentioned in an X put up.

Waissel continued: ‘It is vital, ethically, legally, and journalistically — {that a} fuller image is acknowledged.

‘When Liam handed away, all the world noticed my public response. It was not a response to fame, or grief alone, or the pressures of the music business typically; it was a response rooted in first-hand expertise of the duty-of-care failures, coercive pressures, and systemic harms that have been current throughout our time beneath Cowell’s administration umbrella.

‘In 2010 none of us have been ready to talk out. We have been younger, remoted, tightly contracted, certain by NDAs, and working in what can solely be described as survival mode. The ability imbalance was absolute. The situations have been psychologically suffocating.

‘We lacked the language, the assist, and the authorized understanding to establish, not to mention problem, what we now know.

‘For Cowell to publicly current himself immediately as reflective, involved, and wounded — whereas omitting the systemic pressures, relentless work schedules, emotional manipulation, public shaming constructions, and unregulated high-stress environments that outlined our experiences — will not be merely selective storytelling.

‘It’s an erasure of the very situations that contributed to the psychological well being struggles of a number of artists, together with Liam, myself, and lots of others.’

Nodding to Cowell’s reflection within the Rolling Stone interview, during which he asks of Payne, ‘Might I’ve completed something extra?’ Waissel mentioned: ‘This query solely holds weight when paired with real acknowledgement of what was completed — or not completed — on the time.

‘What occurred to us was structural, patterned, and deeply dangerous. To counsel in any other case is to reframe tragedy as sudden, when in fact many people have been shouting — privately, then publicly — about the identical mechanisms of hurt lengthy earlier than the world misplaced Liam.’

Within the interview, Cowell additionally remembered seeing Payne a 12 months earlier than his dying and telling him that ‘music isn’t the whole lot’ and to reside how he desires.

‘A sentiment that will have been significant had the setting he managed not been one the place music, scores, public humiliation, and strain have been weaponised in ways in which eroded our psychological well being,’ Waissel mentioned of his anecdote.

She continued: ‘Throughout our contracted years, none of us have been ever given the area to “discover one thing else.” We got one choice: obey, carry out, survive.

‘To invoke hindsight knowledge now — with out acknowledging the realities we have been subjected to — additional entrenches the parable that these tragedies occurred in a vacuum reasonably than inside methods he constructed, profited from, and continues to manage.’

She concluded: ‘This isn’t about blame for the sake of blame. That is about accuracy, accountability, and the pressing want for accountability and safeguarding reform in an business that continues to reshape itself publicly whereas leaving its inner harms untouched.

‘If Cowell needs to have public conversations about loss, responsibility, and the “what ifs,” then it’s vital these conversations embrace the total reality, not the curated fragments at the moment being provided.’

Reflecting on how he felt on listening to about Payne’s dying, Cowell mentioned within the interview: ‘After I heard the information, it actually hit me. I noticed him a 12 months earlier than this occurred. He came visiting to my home. We talked about his son and being a dad.

‘I keep in mind saying, “Music will not be the whole lot. Don’t let it run your life anymore. Discover one thing else that you’re keen about.” You ask your self that query: “Might I’ve completed something extra?  What would’ve occurred to Liam if he hadn’t been within the band?”

‘Having spoken to his mother and pop not too long ago, all they stored telling me was he was so pleased with what he had achieved. I want I may flip again the clock, in fact. After I spoke to him that day, I felt actually good about him. I believed, “Wow, you appear in a extremely good place.”’

After auditioning for The X Issue solo, youngsters Payne, Harry Kinds, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik have been put collectively as a gaggle by judges together with Cowell, and shaped the world well-known band liable for hits together with That’s What Makes You Lovely and Story of My Life.

The sequence was produced by Simon Cowell’s manufacturing firm Syco and Freemantle TV and broadcast on ITV.

After One Path completed in third place, Cowell signed the group to his Syco Leisure document label, releasing their debut album in 2011 and changing into globally liked.

Though Simon had an enormous function in launching One Path, Payne selected to not signal with him for his solo profession.

Payne defined he was ‘grateful’ for Simon’s steering, including to The Solar: ‘There was by no means even a deal that crossed the desk from [Simon], so it wasn’t even prefer it was ever open for enterprise in my head.

‘However then hastily he was very upset and scorned by what had occurred however I simply needed to separate myself correctly.

‘I actually wished to get away from the whole lot that I did.’

Former X Issue contestants have lengthy spoke out about their adverse experiences on the present, earlier than and within the wake of Payne’s dying.

Rebecca Ferguson, who was in the identical sequence as One Path, accused the present of ‘exploitation and profiteering’ off younger stars, writing that Payne can be alive immediately had he not auditioned.

Cher Lloyd, who appeared within the 2010 sequence, has made reference to being ‘exploited’ after leaving SyCo in 2016.

In a tirade on Twitter, Jedward slammed Simon and his alleged therapy of former X Issue stars.

Steve Brookstein, the primary ever winner of The X Issue, has usually spoken out towards Simon and the present, even writing a e book about the entire affair, with the official synopsis studying: ‘It was the stuff desires have been product of. It turned the last word nightmare.’

Simon later hit again at Steve, and is quoted as saying: ‘He was horrible, ungrateful and completely egocentric. He simply wouldn’t hear.’

In the meantime former X Issue decide Sharon Osbourne, who left the sequence in 2007, wrote after Payne’s dying: ‘The place was this business if you wanted them? You have been only a child if you entered one of many hardest industries on this planet. Who was in your nook? Relaxation in peace my pal.’

After Payne’s dying, Cowell took to social media with a heartbroken assertion.

‘You by no means actually understand how you are feeling about somebody till a second like this occurs,’ Cowell wrote.

‘Liam, I’m actually devastated. Heartbroken. And I really feel empty. And I need you to understand how a lot love and respect I’ve for you. Each tear I’ve shed is a reminiscence of you.

‘That is so tough to place into phrases proper now. I went outdoors immediately, and I thought of so many occasions we had collectively. I wished to let what I might all the time say to the 1000’s of people that would all the time ask me. What’s Liam like?

‘And I might inform them you have been type, humorous, candy, considerate, proficient, humble, centered. And the way a lot you really liked music. And the way a lot love you genuinely had for the followers.

‘I needed to let you know if you have been 14 that this wasn’t your time. And we each made a promise that we’d meet once more. Lots of people would have given up. You didn’t. You got here again and inside months the entire world knew Liam. And also you by no means forgot the followers. I watched you spending a lot time with individuals who had wished to satisfy you. You actually cared.

‘You got here to see me final 12 months. Not for a gathering. Simply to take a seat and speak. And we reminisced about all the enjoyable occasions we had collectively. And the way proud you have been to be a Dad. After you left, I used to be reminded that you just have been nonetheless the candy, type boy I had met all of these years in the past. I’ve met your son, Bear. He has your smile and that twinkle in his eye that you’ve got.

‘And he can be so pleased with the whole lot you achieved. And the way you achieved it.