Former 'X Factor' Contestant Katie Waissel Pushes Back on Simon Cowell's Remarks About Liam Payne

Katie Waissel is speaking out in response to Simon Cowell’s recent comments about Liam Payne and the early days of One Direction.

The former X Factor contestant—who competed on the same season of the reality competition series as the members of the boy band—released a lengthy statement on X/Twitter after Simon reflected on Liam’s passing and his time overseeing the group in a new interview with Rolling Stone.

While the 66-year-old record exec expressed personal regret, Katie says his remarks leave out critical context about what young contestants actually experienced during that era.

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“The Ugly Truth” singer explains that her emotional reaction to Liam’s death last year wasn’t solely about fame or general industry pressures. Instead, she says it came from “first-hand experience of the duty-of-care failures, coercive pressures, and systemic harms that were present during our time under Cowell’s management umbrella.”

She describes the 2010 environment as one where contestants were “young, isolated, tightly contracted, bound by NDAs, and operating in what can only be described as survival mode.” She adds that “the power imbalance was absolute” and the conditions “psychologically suffocating,” with participants lacking the support or legal understanding to identify “serious safeguarding and ethical breaches.”

Katie also takes issue with Simon presenting himself as reflective without acknowledging the fuller picture. “For Cowell to publicly present himself today as reflective, concerned, and wounded — while omitting the systemic pressures, relentless work schedules, emotional manipulation, public shaming structures, and unregulated high-stress environments that defined our experiences — is not merely selective storytelling. It is an erasure of the very conditions that contributed to the mental health struggles of multiple artists, including Liam, myself, and many others,” she writes.

She specifically responds to his question, “Could I have done anything more?” by saying the sentiment “only holds weight when paired with genuine acknowledgement of what was done — or not done — at the time.”

Simon‘s advice in the interview that “Music is not everything. Don’t let it run your life… Find something else you are passionate about” is also addressed directly in her statement. Katie argues the environment they were in “weaponised” pressure and public humiliation, leaving young contestants with “one option: obey, perform, survive,” rather than space to pursue anything else.

Liam‘s badmate Louis Tomlinson also recently spoke out about Liam and how he learned about of his passing.