When news broke of Kate Thornton's departure from hosting X Factor, many fans were left in shock. At the time, the 51-year-old journalist, who recently landed a role at Greatest Hits Radio, admitted she felt “embarrassed and humiliated” after reports surfaced about her not returning to front the ITV show. Kate was replaced by Dermot O’Leary after the third series.
Speaking on the In The Pink podcast with Natalie Pinkham in 2020, she shared her disappointment that Simon Cowell hadn’t reached out to her directly, expressing a desire to have at least had the “dignity” to resign herself, as she felt blindsided by the situation. She explained: “They didn’t renew my contract having said that they would — and by they, I mean Simon. It’s his show, it’s his gig.
“There’d been speculation in the press that I was going to get the push and I’d asked if that was the case and if it is, please can you just give me the dignity of resigning, don’t throw me out as a cheap headline, because hopefully our friendship and our history would qualify that I mean a little bit more than that. That didn’t happen.” The former This Morning star admitted she has moved past the hurt and acknowledged that "that's just how it goes" in the television industry, although she admitted it was quite embarrassing at the time.
Kate said: “It hurt more that somebody that I considered to be a friend hadn’t been up front with me. It was very public. It was on the News at Ten.
It was.
