Cher Lloyd defended her X Factor mentor Cheryl as she detailed her tough time on the show in a new podcast on Tuesday. 

The singer, 31, first rose to a fame as a contestant on the ITV show in 2010 where she looked after by Cheryl – before they then famously fell out.

They had a series of public spats but now it appears Cher looks back on their professional relationship with fondness. 

Speaking on Paul Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast, Cher said of the star: ‘What I will say is Cheryl was nothing but good to me. I had a feeling that she knew (I was having a hard time) and she would always ask if I was okay. 

‘I knew that she meant it when she said it. I knew that she was actually really saying ‘are you okay?’ Like ‘do you need help?’.

‘I felt supported by her, but everything else around I just felt like it was just for the show.’

Cher Lloyd defended her X Factor mentor Cheryl as she detailed her tough time on the show in a new podcast on Tuesday

The singer, 31, first rose to a fame as a contestant on the ITV show in 2010 where she looked after by Cheryl – before they then famously fell out

The Girls Aloud singer ended up putting Cher through to the live shows, which caused a ruckus with viewers after her Judges’ Houses audition fell flat due to her bad throat.

Cher didn’t win the show, but went on to launch a solo career, notably doing well in America.

The pair fell out after Cher’s stint on the show when, in 2011, she released her first single.

During press for the song, Swagger Jagger, when asked if she speaks to Cheryl still, she said she had ‘more chance of winning the lottery than catching up’ with her.

Cher then went on to accuse Cheryl of mining during a performance of her hit track Fight For This Love.

Cheryl later hit back on Twitter, writing: ‘Be Careful who you kick on your way up… They kick you twice as hard on your way back down… #unappreciationisugly.’

Cher quickly back-tracked, admitting on ITV’s daybreak that she ‘shouldn’t have’ gone in on the Geordie star.

‘I just want to say sorry to her if she found that offensive. But at the end of the day, she is the person who got me to where I am today,’ Cher said, eating a hearty helping of humble pie.

They had a series of public spats but now it appears Cher looks back on their professional relationship with fondness

Speaking on Paul Brunson’s We Need To Talk podcast, Cher said of the star: ‘What I will say is Cheryl was nothing but good to me. I had a feeling that she knew (I was having a hard time) and she would always ask if I was okay’

During press for the song, Swagger Jagger, when asked if she speaks to Cheryl still, Cher said she had ‘more chance of winning the lottery than catching up’ with her

Cher then went on to accuse Cheryl of mining during a performance of her hit track Fight For This Love (seen on X Factor with Rebecca Ferguson)

She added: ‘[Being young] is not an excuse, I should still be on top of it. I’m in the public eye now, so word vomit is not good!’

Cher did admit later on GMB that she ‘owes’ Cheryl for her success on The X Factor.

‘I think being in the industry, you are just so busy,’ she said, when asked about if she speaks to Cheryl. 

‘We exchange little messages on Twitter. She’s had a baby, I’ve had a baby. We share a lot in common.

‘But really for me I just want to say thank you to her for giving me the biggest and best opportunity ever. I literally owe that to her.’

During Cher’s time on the show Cheryl spoke about rumours Cher has been causing issues with her atтιтude at the time – insisting there had been no trouble with the singer.

She said: ‘I think she is 17, she’s got that teenage edge going on. She is different. And I get her completely.

‘All the girls are great girls, honestly. I have to work with them as well – I wouldn’t put them through if I didn’t think I could.’

Referring to a report Cher had thrown a ‘tantrum’ over an outfit which had been picked out for one live performance, Cheryl said: ‘I like to hear their opinions.

‘I’m not going to say, ‘That’s what you’re wearing, that’s what you’re doing’.

‘But there’s no stropping going on, I wouldn’t be able to handle that.’

Elsewhere during the podcast Cher became the latest X Factor star to hit out at bosses, revealing she ‘lost her mind’ and ‘went to a dark place’ after being ‘painted as a villain’ during her time on the show.

After the show she signed to Simon Cowell’s record label Syco.

Cher went on to leave three years later after the star revealed she and Simon, 65, had disagreed about her career path and how she couldn’t handle that level of ‘control’. 

On the podcast Cher revealed the devastating impact her time on The X Factor had on her mental health.

The star confessed that due to the fact she hit out at negative attention towards her she was ‘painted as the villain’ by bosses.

Read More X Factor winner looks very different 15 years after winning the ITV show

Offering insight into the show’s welfare support at the time, Cher went onto add that even though she was just 16 when she took part on the show, she was prescribed antidepressants.

She said: ‘I was oblivious, I truly believed that going on a show like The X Factor was gonna be just fun, fun and I’m gonna get to sing which is exactly what I wanted, it wasn’t just that. It was so much more.

‘They have to entertain people, unfortunately it’s not just about the signing and I think because I had such confidence and was such a presence at that time I think that was a gateway into kind of giving me the character of the villain. 

‘I guess I was the villain that year which tends to happen in reality TV, and I’m not saying that I was perfect because I definitely wasn’t, I think I struggled a lot on the show with how to deal with this instant fame, and people’s comments towards me and the negative attention.

‘I didn’t know how to deal with it, but at the same time I look back and I think I didn’t deserve half the stuff that happened to me, I definitely didn’t. And I’d feel the same if that was my daughter, if my daughter had to go through that I’d pull her. 1,000,000 per cent.’

Detailing how she struggled with negative comments from viewers, Cher admitted she would ‘constantly bite back,’ and it made her feel like she had ‘lost all control of her life.’

She added that it was ‘tiny micro things,’ such as being told to wear clothes she didn’t like by the show’s stylist, that made her feel like she was ‘losing her mind.’

‘I didn’t feel like I had anyone to turn to. No one to talk to properly because they were on the show,’ she said.

‘So where do you go? I felt like I was watching myself from the outside and I was watching myself spiral, I was spiraling, I was angry really really angry, because all of a sudden it wasn’t fun anymore.’

Asked by Paul about the mental health support on offer to contestants at the time, Cher said there was a ‘team’ on hand, but added: ‘I was given antidepressants while on the show, I was 16 and I was prescribed antidepressants, I thought that was the norm, I guess this is showbiz.

‘I felt like I had to because, was it gonna get better? Was it gonna stop? I don’t know.’

In her new single, Head Down, Cher also appears to take a swipe at X Factor head judge Simon, where she sings ‘You sold me the dream, I was just seventeen, chewed me up, spit me out’.

MailOnline has contacted a representative for ITV for comment. 

The singer first rose to a fame as a contestant on the ITV show in 2010, but has now shared the devastating impact her time on the series had on her mental health

MailOnline understands that a psychologist was present at all judge auditions, boot camp and key stages in the compeтιтion and a doctor was on hand to supervise the screening of participants for welfare concerns and provide support across the series.

A dedicated welfare producer was present at the participant house and in the studios acting as the day-to-day contact for the participants and medical or psychological support provided was on a confidential basis.

The same year she left Cowell’s label, Cher married her boyfriend of less than two years, Craig Monk, and in May 2018 they welcomed their first daughter, Delilah-Rae.

Their second daughter, Eliza Violet was born in 2023.