Singer Katie Waissel (36), one of the most talked about contestants from fifteen seasons X Factor in England, retrained as a lawyer to take on the show’s creators. She was listed as the ‘most hated’ candidate in the most watched series of 2010 and Simon Cowell’s company is said to have looked after her badly. “The program destroyed my life.”
She tells that today in conversation with The Times. According to British media, about 14 million viewers per episode saw in 2010 how Waissel participated in the TV talent show from jury member Simon Cowell. A then brand new boy group, One Direction, also made a shot at the title, which eventually went to Matt Cardle. However, the tabloids mainly talked about Katie, who finished seventh.
She was dubbed the “most hated” contestant and reportedly received acid attack and death threats. After participating, she suffered from panic attacks and suicidal thoughts and entered therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, she says.
According to Waissel, Syco Entertainment, Cowell’s company, is to blame for that X Factor produced. She is determined to take the organization to court: Syco would have acted negligently with the duty of care for candidates and she has suffered damage as a result. The first letter to the company has already been sent, according to Waissel.
In England, a statute of limitations of three years applies to such cases. She must therefore convince the judge to make an exception. Waissel does not do that alone, but with her lawyers. According to local media, she has only completed a postgraduate law degree so far and can formally ‘only’ work as a legal assistant.
According to Waissel, the system was built on power inequality. She herself received, in line with her contract, a symbolic amount of 1 pound as compensation for her participation in the live shows. Cowell’s company is said to have made nearly £23 million in profit that year (now nearly £26 million).
‘That is manipulation and coercion in its purest form,’ she says in the newspaper. ‘Party A has the power, party B is vulnerable. Party A says that this is the greatest opportunity of your life and you will get nowhere otherwise. This is exactly where it all went wrong. It gives me goosebumps.’
Watch Katie Waissel’s audition, read more below:
She did her legal training because she wants to know what she’s talking about and not be surprised when it becomes a case. “So many people like me have been ‘trapped’ and it’s not fair, there was a huge disparity in power. I just wanted to be able to understand the contracts and prevent people from being manipulated in the future.”
Simon Cowell’s company has not yet responded as far as is known. Waissel is not the first former contestant to argue that candidates were sometimes poorly taken care of at the show, which ran between 2004 and 2018. According to the makers, there was an entire team that paid attention to talents during and after the program, according to them The Times.
Waissel previously accused an employee of the show of assaulting her when she met him at a hotel years after her participation. The man denied that, but no longer works for the company. Waissel did not want to file a formal complaint at the time, wrote Metro UK.
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