Brenda Edwards felt ‘depressed’ after Simon Cowell mocked her appearance during her X Factor audition.
The 45-year-old singer finished fourth on The X Factor back in 2005, and opened up about how comments in her audition from Simon led to her being concerned about her weight.
Speaking on Loose Women while discussing James Corden’s dispute with Bill Maher over fat-shaming, Brenda said: ‘I’ve had an experience. When I did X Factor in 2005 I went on the show, I thought I looked alright to be honest, and I was in front of the judges.
‘I didn’t have audition clothes to wear so I pulled whatever I had out of the case and put it on because I wasn’t actually thinking I was going to get an audition.
‘I got in front of the judges and lovely Simon he said to me, “What have you come as?” For me, as much as he didn’t use the word fat, that’s what I took as an interpretation and I went home and I was really quite down and depressed.’
Brenda explained how the comment prompted her to focus on losing weight for the live shows, adding: ‘I got through the show and I was on the show, and there was one week where he said I was like Shirley Valentine because I’d changed and transformed.
‘But what it was, I took the positive out of what I felt initially was the negative in the fact when I went on the show, because they always say television puts 10 pounds on you, so I was like, “oh my gosh I can’t have that.”
‘I was four stone heavier at the time when I did the show, and I made a conscious decision to get in the gym and do a little bit of a workout.’
Asked if she felt fat-shaming did work in a way, Brenda replied: ‘It did work. I wasn’t happy about someone saying, “What have you come as?” because I was literally just there to sing, I didn’t think anything of it.’
Past auditions on The X Factor have recently come under fire over encouraging contestants to lose weight, including one notable clip which went viral earlier this year.
You can catch Loose Women weekdays on ITV at 12.30pm.