Louis Walsh: I tell Tulisa to behave but she doesn’t listen

Louis Walsh has revealed he has given axed X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos a shoulder to cry on after her alleged drugs bust.

The pair struck up an unlikely friendship during the two years they sat together on the famous panel, with the 60-year-old Irishman still keeping in contact with the troubled N Dubz star, 25.

‘She is a nice kid. She got bad press, but she is a good kid,’ he said, defending the singer after her recent drugs bust ordeal.

‘I texted her last night, I told her to behave cos I saw those pictures of her on the beach.

‘But she won’t listen,’ he went on, making reference to Tulisa’s birthday celebrations in Ibiza.

Louis also went on to say he feels sad that she never got to work with his returning co-judge Sharon Osbourne as he things she would have been a positive influence.

‘I think she is a really nice girl. I like her an awful lot and the one woman who could have tamed Tulisa is sitting beside me now.’

As the longest running member of The X Factor panel, Louis – who has held a chair on all ten series of the show – is keen to get back on screens this autumn as he watches the new hopefuls.

‘It is my jubilee,’ he said, jubilantly, adding: ‘I love doing it, it is the best job in the world when you are on it.’

[Originally published Metro Guilty Pleasures 17 July 2013]