Westlife felt "unloved" by Simon Cowell

Nicky Byrne has revealed that Simon Cowell became too busy to manage Westlife properly.

The band member explained that the music mogul was "brilliant" when they first signed to him but later became preoccupied with The X Factor and American Idol.

Westlife joined Cowell's Sony BMG company before they became well known in 1998 and later moved to his Sony imprint Syco in 2002.

Byrne told ahlanlive.com: "We signed to Simon back in 1998 and he was brilliant, but then came the development of X Factor and American Idol.

"Simon became famous himself and his interests went that way rather than on Westlife."

The singer said that he and his bandmates felt "unloved" by Cowell, which led them to terminate their 13-year contract earlier this year.

He added: "We almost felt a little bit unloved with Simon Cowell, if I was to be honest. We had [full-time support] with Simon but he got so busy and would do it at the very last minute and we needed someone who was on it all the time."