Gary Barlow Says He Was Warned 'X Factor' Bosses Would 'Throw Him Under The Bus'

Gary Barlow has revealed the lengths producers on ‘The X Factor’ would go to in order to orchestrate drama when he was a judge on the show.

In his new autobiography, ‘A Better Me’, Gary claims that he was initially put off agreeing to judge the ITV talent show, as friends in the industry warned him about what could go down.

“I’ve got a very healthy address book of TV professionals,” he wrote. “And I set about ringing every single one of them. ‘The X Factor’. What’s it all about?

“To the last, they all said the same thing: ‘The only thing anyone cares about in that building is ‘The X Factor’. They won’t mind throwing you under the bus, using you to get a headline, feeding you a line that will end your career, as long as ‘The X Factor’ gets a mention’.”

Joking that his dressing room could have been “bugged” as private conversations “always found their way to the press”, Gary went on to describe how producers would plant ideas in the judges’ minds to stir up fabricated drama.

Naming one such incident explicitly, he wrote: “About half an hour before the show goes live, the producers would come in and they’d go, ‘Oh my God. That Misha [B]. She’s a bully. Can’t believe it. She is such a bully. In fact, you know what? You should say it. You should say it on air. She’s bullied everyone all week’.”

HuffPost UK has reached out to an ‘X Factor’ spokesperson for comment.

Gary served as a judge for three series of ‘The X Factor’, eventually departing in 2013, after which Simon Cowell resumed his seat in the panel.

During his time on the show, Gary mentored acts including Christopher Maloney, Marcus Collins and the boyband Kingsland Road.