Sharon Osbourne and Simon Cowell get along now they don't have "big egos".

Sharon Osbourne

Sharon Osbourne

The two 'X Factor' judges used to frequently clash when they first sat on the panel together in 2004 but this year they are getting along much better because they have grown up and can see the funny side of their clashes.

Sharon - who was a judge from 2004 until 2007 and again in 2013 before returning this year - said: "We first worked together 13 years ago when I was all prickly and had a big ego - so did Simon.

"You change. Now, I say to him, 'Shut up.' And he goes to me, 'Shut up.' Then you have a laugh about it.

"Back then I was like, 'Don't you know who I am?' It was the same with him. We both had egos but you grow up.

"It's like how people say if you're the same person you are at 20 when you are at 50 then you've wasted your life.

"You change and you grow and the things that rattled your cage 13 years ago don't rattle your cage anymore."

While Sharon, 63, only stayed for one season during her last judging stint, she is hoping Simon - who returned to the panel in 2014 after a three-series break - will bring her back again this year.

She told The Sun newspaper: "It's up to Simon, of course. You'd like to think you'd be there for three years, but it's not up to me."

This year's judging panel has seen Sharon, Louis Walsh, 64, and Nicole Scherzinger, 38, replace Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, 33, Nick Grimshaw, 32, and Rita Ora, 25.

And the 'Talk' presenter thinks the climb in the show's ratings is down to having the older panel.

She said: "It's great to have young kids on the panel and you get that energy and whatever.

"But nothing counts for experience, nothing compares to the amount of years somebody has been in the business. You know, that's what it is."

Tagged in