Simon Cowell Cheryl Cole still upset by X Factor axe

Simon Cowell Cheryl Cole still upset by X Factor axe

Simon Cowell Cheryl Cole still upset by X Factor axe. Simon Cowell has insisted that he agreed to Cheryl Cole's X Factor USA exit because he was trying to protect her.The music mogul broke his silence on the two-week drama just hours after it was officially confirmed that Nicole Scherzinger is to replace Cole on the judging panel for the Fox show.

"The hardest thing to accept is that everyone has painted me as a monster because I embarrassed her, but the truth was I was protecting her," Cowell told The Mirror. "I just want people to be in the best place at the right time."

Cowell admitted that Cole had appeared "uncomfortable" in her new role alongside himself, Paula Abdul and Antonio 'L.A.' Reid.

"Knowing Cheryl like I know her, we noticed she was quieter than normal, looked a bit uncomfortable but I put some of this down to nerves. The overall feeling was that she was slightly out [of] her comfort zone in America, compared to what she was in the UK.

"If she had accepted my original offer, she would have made a sensational return and would have understood she was more comfortable in the UK than the US."

Cowell went on to confirm that a genuine last minute offer to return her to the US panel had been made to Cole over the weekend.

"When she turned down the UK show, we got back in touch and said, well she is still under contract with the US show so we invited her back. Her position was still there," he explained.

"We had some heated conversations with her US manager will.i.am and he inferred this wasn't a genuine offer. They thought that if she didn't turn up on Wednesday then we wouldn't pay her.

"We made it clear that she was always going to be paid in full. We got to the point on Saturday when we genuinely thought she was going to accept the offer but again neither she nor they returned any calls. So we've announced Nicole."

Read more: digitalspy