Samantha Lavery's ex-boyfriend has claimed she dumped him by text message.
Samantha Lavery (c) Syco / Thames / Dymond
Acea Brabrook, 24, insists he was a "back-up plan" as the 17-year-old wannabe singer ended things with him after she shot to fame on 'The X Factor', despite promising him that being on the programme "wouldn't change her".
He said: "We had talked about the future, we had plans to deal with the fame and the stardom.
"She promised it wouldn't change her.
"She was so down to earth that I was sure that would be the case. Now I feel like I was just a back-up plan."
The barman believes the pair would still be dating if Samantha, who has been romantically linked to fellow contestant Nathan Lewis, 23, had been booted out of the competition
He explained: "If she had crashed and burned she would have come back up north and we would have carried on dating.
"But she is making a success of it, so now I'm history. She has a new love in her life -- and that new love is 'X Factor'.
"And it appears she may have a second new love, a fellow pop star."
Acea first became worried about his and Sam's relationship when she started deleting Instagram pictures of them just "half an hour" after uploading the snaps.
He added to The Sun newspaper: "It was just strange behaviour but I tried not to dwell on it."
Sam survived the third week of the live 'X Factor' shows last weekend, during which Relley C was voted off, but she was involved in some controversy.
Presenter Dermot O'Leary was forced to apologise after hopeful Gifty Louise swore when she learned Sam had made it through to this weekend's show.
Sam had hugged her mentor Simon Cowell as Gifty screamed: "I f***ing told you."
Dermot later said: "You may have heard some inappropriate language.
"But as you can imagine, emotions are high."
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