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I quit show because of Dannii: Osbourne

Posted November 29, 2008 10:11:00

Sharon Osbourne has launched an extraordinary attack on Australian pop star and TV host Dannii Minogue.

Osbourne claims she was forced to leave her job as a judge on hit British TV talent show The X Factor because co-host Minogue was "manipulative" and drove her out.

Osbourne, 56, left the show earlier this year and was replaced by Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole.

She told The Sun newspaper that Dannii, who also hosts Australia's Got Talent on the Seven Network, was "99 per cent of the reason" she quit.

"There's the perception she's the sweetest little thing in the world but she's not," Osbourne said.

"She's a woman of the world. She's got balls of steel."

Osbourne accused Minogue of "trying to be a teacher's pet" to the show's creator and sometimes vitriolic host Simon Cowell.

"She was always at his side, like a little stray dog," Osbourne said.

"Her eyes turned brown she had her head so far up his backside."

Osbourne said when she confronted Minogue over a TV interview she gave, claiming Osbourne was jealous of her because she was "younger and prettier", the Australian singer "just cried and never said a word".

"I confronted her a few times but she really doesn't like it and goes into the baby hissy fit thing and sulks instead of saying, 'okay, if that's the way you feel, maybe we can fix it'," Osbourne said.

"The next week the director wanted me to sort it out so I said to her [Minogue] 'What do you want me to do to make this work? I will walk over hot coals, will that make this better?' She just stared at me like an iceberg. She never said a word.

"Eventually, in December (2007) I went to see Simon and the show's executive producer, Richard Holloway, and said the stress was too much and I couldn't do it any more."

- AAP

Tags: popular-culture, television, united-kingdom

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