Cowell: Jedward Threatened Blackmail

Simon Cowell today spoke out over his anguish at having to let beautiful Welsh singing sensation Lucie Jones leave the X-Factor.

The pop svengali caused a meltdown on social networking sites, when he allowed the sing off to go to deadlock, therefore giving the public the final say, which saw whipping boys Jedward through to fight another week.

After roundly criticising the twins performances week after week and insisting the reality show was a 'singing' contest, the pop mogul's decision to not save Lucie reverberated around the world, with Barack Obama calling for him to be sacked - only to have it pointed out that Cowell was actually the boss who made up the rules as he went along - Cowell himself called a press conference to state his case.

His voice trembling with emotion, the King of Pop Starmakers told how he received a bunch of shamrocks with a scrawled note, saying that if he did not save them, Jedward would tell everyone they saw him crying at a special screening of New Moon in the contestants house.

He told the assembled press how he had to threaten a producer into giving him the nod that Jedward had the bigger public vote, so that his controversial decision was not so obvious. Asked why he was speaking out now, Cowell, tears leaking through his fingers as he held his head in his hands, said he couldn't go on living with the guilt and vowed that next week would be different.

"I just don't want any more of the acts to suffer Lucie and Rachel's fates," he sobbed, "least of all my own."