X Factor star Katie Waissel ‘retrains as a lawyer and is trying to sue Simon Cowell’s Syco for breaching its duty of care’ after claiming stint on the show back in 2010 ‘ruined my life’

• Katie Waissel was a contestant on the X Factor on the 2010 season of the show
• Waissel said the singing show ‘ruined my life’ and has since retrained in law
• She said she suffered both panic attacks and suicidal thoughts while on the show

Katie Waissel was a contestant on the most watched season of the X Factor in 2010, singing to some 14 million people in their living rooms each week. But the former contestant has spoken out, saying: ‘the show ruined my life’.

Throughout the course of the singing competition, Waissel said she received acid attack and death threats, and suffered both panic attacks and suicidal thoughts.

Speaking to the Times, Waissel said she has since sought therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder following her time on the show.

Now, after retraining in law, Waissel said she is suing Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment, the production company behind the talent show, for breach of duty of care.

Katie Waissel was a contestant on the most watched season of the X Factor in 2010, but has since retrained in law

Waissel has also founded the OWHL Foundation to help others who have experienced a similar situation to her. On its website, the foundation says it aims to ‘oversee the welfare, human rights and liberty within the creative industry sector’.

Looking back through contracts she signed during her time on the X Factor, she told the Times: ‘There are so many of us who have been so trapped and it’s not fair, there was a huge imbalance in power.’

This motivated her to want to understand how the contracts worked so that she could help other people ‘from being manipulated in the future,’ she said.

Waissel’s claim is targeting Syco Entertainment, whose subsidiary Simco produced the show alongside Fremantle.

The show has produced some of the country’s most successful acts including Harry Styles and One Direction, Little Mix, Leona Lewis, and James Arthur.

With millions of viewers tuning in each Saturday night, the singing contest was quickly franchised to other contrives around the world, replicating huge viewing figures in the US, Spain and Australia.

Other contestants have also opened up about their time on the show.

Cher Lloyd also shot to fame on the 2010 series at just 16-years-old, and said she was left feeling ‘vulnerable’.

‘At times I’d get really angry’ she said in 2021. ‘I felt angry because I’d go to a rehearsal, leave the studio, and chased on my own, chased by a group of 20 to 25 men with cameras.

‘I just felt really vulnerable. There’d be a chaperone person for everyone as a group, of course, we were underage.’

Throughout the course of the singing competition, Waissel said she received acid attack and death threats, and suffered both panic attacks and suicidal thoughts

Matt Cardle, who won the show in 2010, has also addressed his time on the X Factor after going to rehab for alcohol and prescription drug addiction.

The singer, 39, said in 2021 that he believed sometimes reality show contestants’ ‘dreams and hopes’ are messed with in order to make great TV.

Cardle said: ‘There really is a duty of care to protect because those shows use people. It’s as simple as that, you know. Like everyone else on that show was, was being used, as was I even post the show.’

He continued: ‘It’s a tricky one for them to navigate because they are just trying to make good telly. But along the way, people’s hopes and dreams are going to get, you know, messed with.’

The Times reported that the show’s co-production company Fremantle had robust measures to ‘ensure contestants are supported, including a dedicated welfare team made up of psychologists, doctors, welfare producers and independent legal and management advisers with no time limit on aftercare once the show has aired.’

MailOnline has reached out to Syco Entertainment for comment.

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