Lucy Spraggan has hinted Simon Cowell pulled out of 'Walk The Line' because of how ITV "conducted themselves" when it came to her potentially taking part in 'I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!'.
Lucy Spraggan hints at real reason why Simon Cowell pulled out of Walk The Line
The former 'X Factor' star has claimed ITV "did not want to play ball" and she was not picked to appear on the show, and she has now suggested Simon's departure from the former musical competition in 2021, when he pulled out six weeks beforehand, may have been linked.
According to The Sun newspaper, Lucy writes in her new memoir 'Process': "ITV did not want to play ball.
"This was the very last opportunity I would give ITV to cut me a f****** break.
"Simon was not only furious but shocked.
"He was seeing, first-hand, how ITV conducted themselves when it came to me.
"Days later, he pulled out of Walk The Line."
Earlier this month, Lucy told how she quit 'The X Factor' in 2012 after she was raped by a porter in the hotel room she was staying in, after a night out partying with fellow contestant Rylan Clark.
She told The Guardian newspaper: "I woke up the next day with this sense of sheer dread. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that level of confusion since.
"I knew that I’d been raped, but I could not process that. So I put my clothes on and went into autopilot."
Lucy explained she could not continue on the show due to the side-effects of Pep (post-exposure prophylaxis - a drug that, if taken within 72 hours of exposure, prevents HIV) and she faced terrible thoughts while sequestered in a room on the 11th floor of the Park Lane Hilton.
She said: "That evening, I had to relentlessly shake away the constant pull to go towards the balcony doors. 'All of this could go away so quickly,’ I thought."
Lucy received financial, legal and medical support in the immediate aftermath of the crime, but claimed she received no support after the trial the following year.
She said: "No one ever contacted me to ask if I was OK. No one called or emailed when the trial was over and he was convicted. No one offered me rehabilitation or ongoing mental health treatment. I was on my own."
A statement from ITV said: "We have the deepest compassion for Lucy and everything she has endured as a result of this horrific ordeal. We commend her resilience and bravery.
"The X Factor was produced by Thames and Syco, who were primarily responsible for duty of care towards all of its programme contributors.
"ITV as a commissioning broadcaster is committed to having in place suitable and robust oversight procedures, with a view to ensuring that independent producers employ the correct processes to protect the mental health and welfare of participants.
"We have evolved and improved these oversight procedures since the events in question and we are encouraged to hear that Thames recognises the importance of continuous review and improvement of their own processes.
"We continue to evolve our own duty of care processes on programmes we produce to ensure that there are appropriate measures in place to support contributors before, during and after filming.
"In an event of such a distressing nature, welfare and support towards the victim would always be of the utmost priority."
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