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Katie, who participated in the X Factor at the peak of its fame in 2010 alongside One Direction, ultimately placed seventh overall.
However, the 37-year-old has since claimed she was “completely ridiculed” at her “lowest point” by staff of the show.
On Wednesday, the mum-of-one appeared in a Twitter Live Q&A, giving her 150,000 followers a chance to ask their questions about her experiences and recording it on her page.
During the live, Katie read out several emails she reportedly obtained through a GDPR request to ITV, the network that hosted the show, and the production companies directly involved with The X Factor.
One email she shared allegedly saw a member of the production team writing that Katie was “over-dramatising this situation” when she had collapsed during a shopping trip.
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The singer and songwriter also recalled suffering a series of panic attacks on the show and, while she hoped to be sent home, she claimed the producers merely asked her parents to convince her to see a doctor.
Katie divulged: “I wanted to go home. It was absolutely awful.”
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An ITV representative told Express.co.uk: “The X Factor was produced by Thames and Syco, who were responsible for duty of care and welfare towards contestants on the show. The recording contracts signed by contestants from the show were with Syco Music and other independent record labels.
“ITV remains committed to having in place suitable processes to protect the mental health and welfare of programme participants. We have continued to evolve and strengthen our approach, and we expect all producers of commissioned programmes, in this instance Thames and Syco, to have in place appropriate procedures to look after the mental health of programme participants as well as their physical safety.”
While this isn’t Katie’s first time speaking up about the mistreatment she allegedly endured, she was prompted to take her advocacy to another level following Rebecca Fergusons’ bombshell revelations earlier this week.
Rebecca, who was also a contestant on the show in 2010, shared screenshots on social media of her alleged correspondence with Ofcom and ITV in 2021 when she raised a formal complaint over her treatment on the show and claimed she had been “fogged off”.
The singer opted to reveal the correspondences in light of the scandal currently surrounding ITV over Phillip Schofield’s relationship with a young male runner on This Morning.
Speaking specifically about Rebecca, the ITV spokesperson added: “In our correspondence with Rebecca we stressed that the welfare of participants is of the highest priority at ITV as reflected in our Duty of Care Charter and the detailed guidance, introduced in 2019, we now have available for all producers, to ensure that the welfare of participants is adequately safeguarded on all our programmes.
“ITV responded to Rebecca with information provided to us by the producers, detailing their arrangements regarding welfare, aftercare, legal advice, and management, at the time of her participation.”
