Britney Spears may be retired from her pop music career now, but after reaching such iconic levels of fame, there was a time when she wanted to help others do the same. In 2012 she joined The X Factor as a judge alongside Simon Cowell, but she only lasted one season, writing in her memoir that she “absolutely hated” being on the show. Cowell has now spoken out about why he thinks she had a bad experience.
Why Britney Spears Said She ‘Hated’ Her Time On The X Factor
In 2023, Britney Spears made some wild revelations in The Woman in Me, spilling the tea about her family, the constraints of her conservatorship and her Y2K romance and breakup with Justin Timberlake. One topic she tackled was The X Factor, where she joined creator Simon Cowell, L.A. Reid and Demi Lovato on the judging panel.
She wrote that while people like Christina Aguilera and Gwen Stefani thrived when the cameras were on them, she no longer had the same comfort that she did when she was younger, and she got “very, very nervous” on days when they were filming. Her memoir reads (via the New York Post):
Maybe I’m just not cut out for that anymore. I’ve accepted that now and it’s okay. I can tell people who try to push me in that direction no. I’ve been forced into things I didn’t want to do and been humiliated. It’s not my thing at this point. Now, if you’ve got me a cute cameo on a fun TV show where I’m in and out in a day that’s one thing, but to act skeptical for eight straight hours while judging on TV? Uh, no thank you. I absolutely hated it.
Simon Cowell, seemingly unaware of these comments, spoke to some of these same issues when he discussed Britney Spears with the New York Times.
Simon Cowell Says Britney Spears ‘Wasn’t Happy’ On The Singing Competition
It’s a shame that The X Factor ended up being a bad experience for Britney Spears, because according to the America’s Got Talent judge, she was the one who reached out to him about joining the panel. According to Simon Cowell:
Somebody said, ‘Britney would be interested in working with you.’ And I said, ‘Well, would she talk to me on a call?’ Because I thought, It’s never going to happen. ‘Yes, Friday night, 8 o’clock. She’s going to call you.’ On the dot, she calls, and we spoke for two hours. She was so fun, engaged, passionate, interesting. She just really, really wants to do it, I think for the right reasons, which was to be a mentor.
The record executive scheduled a second call to make sure their productive conversation hadn’t been “a fluke,” but it was the opposite. He said their next meeting was “even better,” and he was blown away by how smart and friendly she was. However, things took a turn when they started auditioning artists for The X Factor Season 2. Cowell continued:
Cut to: We do a press launch, and Britney’s there and she doesn’t look that happy. And I said, ‘What’s the matter?’ She said, ‘I didn’t realize there was going to be so much press around.’ And I went, ‘Well, it is a press launch.’ And then on the show, she really struggled with saying no to people. Just didn’t like it.
I think every artist who’s appeared as a judge or coach on a singing competition has experienced the agony of rejecting hopeful contestants. Carrie Underwood struggled with it when she returned to American Idol, and the whole reason Ariana Grande won’t return to The Voice is because she got too attached to her team members.
Simon Cowell understood that as well, but said he explained to Britney Spears that they simply couldn’t put everybody through to the next round. If she really didn’t want to do the job, he said he’d get her out of it. They talked for hours about it outside of the show, as he said:
I got to know her when she came over to my house one time, and we just talked and talked, because I really wanted to get inside her head. Was she happy? Was she unhappy? She wasn’t happy. That’s what I took away. It was like two different people.
When Britney Spears’ comment about how she “absolutely hated” being on the show was brought up, Simon Cowell responded as if he didn’t know she’d written that, saying, “Did she?” and then:
That’s a shame. I did say to the network, ‘I don’t know if she wants to do it, and if she doesn’t, we’ve got to give her the option of being able to leave.’ No one was forcing her.
The “… Baby One More Time” artist may not have fond memories of her time on the Fox reality competition show, but Simon Cowell’s opinion of her hasn’t changed. In fact, back in 2023 when it looked like the OG American Idol judge might revive The X Factor, Britney Spears was his first choice to join him at the judges’ table.
Simon Cowell knows talent when he sees it, and it’s not hard to see why he’s insistent that Britney’s star quality, choreography, styling, song choice and knowledge of the business are exactly the qualities that would make her valuable to up-and-comers.
Unfortunately it doesn’t sound like a role that she would consider going back to.