Music

Rita Confirms she’s Leaving X-Factor

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11 May 2016

By Alex Khalil

Rita Ora, the rumoured ‘Becky with the good hair’ from Beyonce’s song ‘Lemonade’, has finally announced she will be leaving the X-Factor.

Rita joined the show last year, but since the last season ended, she tweeted:

She only had a one-year run, and many are speculating as to why the singer is leaving so soon.

Simon Cowell is said to have his sights set on having Sharon Osbourne and Nicole Scherzinger return to the panel. Stories are surfacing that Nicole may be the reason Rita has left, after a contracting dispute.

According to the MirrorRita denied a £1.5m contract after she found out Simon was to replace her as soon as Nicole agreed to do the show.

Nick Grimshaw, another judge who left after only one year, said on Radio 1 in February:

“I did love it and it’s not a diss to the show. It’s a great show and I loved it. But it’s definitely a once-in-a-lifetime style thing,”

It appears that it’s not just the judges leaving.

Presenters Flack and Murs have announced their plans to leave, too. After only one year (there seems to be a trend here), the duo have left the show open to previous presenter Dermot O’Leary, who left the show after the 2014 shows, to further his career beyond X-Factor.

But in a tweet he said he was “flattered to be asked back”.

The future for the X-Factor is looking uncertain, it would seem.

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