Cheryl Cole’s Firing from X Factor Was PR Stunt, Nicole Scherzinger’s Ex Manager Says

Much fuss was made over Cheryl Cole coming to the US as judge on Simon Cowell’s new X Factor, which would have also launched her music career here. Even more was made when she was let go but, as it turns out, it was all part of the plan.

As fans must know, after Cole was dropped from the show after just 5 days at the auditions, her place was given to Nicole Scherzinger who had initially been hired as co-host.

Nicole’s former manager is now saying that this had been the plan all along, Cheryl was never meant to be on the show and the entire thing was just a stunt put together by producers to boost ratings, the Daily Mail informs.

Jeff Haddad managed Nicole for 13 years and he goes on the record saying that he knew that Nicole had been frontrunner for the position all along, which would definitely indicate that Cole was just a smokescreen.

Indeed, X Factor did get a lot of media attention when it emerged how Cole had been “humiliated” and sent packing for home – and this was precisely the purpose of this whole campaign, Haddad seems to be saying.

“In my opinion, Simon always wanted Nicole as a judge. There was never a question that she wouldn’t get it,” the ex manager is quoted as saying.

“Nicole was always going to be on that judging panel and Cheryl was just being used as a cog in the wheel to cause hype and publicize the show,” Haddad adds.

He also says that, during talks, he never heard the name of Cole being mentioned, it was always that of Nicole. She fired him right before signing the contract, he claims.

“If you serve as someone’s manager and develop their career for over a decade and that person didn’t pay you after landing the biggest TV show of their career, what does that tell you?” Haddad says of how he parted ways with the former Pussycat Doll.