Cowell hits out at Charlotte Church

Simon Cowell has criticised Charlotte Church for wasting an opportunity at a successful music career.

The X Factor judge believes the singer had a great chance to launch classical career, before pop music and television took its place.

Cowell told Classic FM: "She was our representative. And this was a girl who in my opinion, with a bit of training and some work, could have been a massive massive operatic star for the next few years because she's really talented. To me, it appears as if she's thrown it all away for this different career. She's crazy."

Speaking of the X Factor, Cowell continued: "What I don't want is six Charlotte Churches - I don't want that. I don't want them on chat shows swearing at the age of 20 in a few years time. I can't bear all that. In fact I'm almost thinking about sending them each a poster of Charlotte Church with a big cross on it - 'don't go there'."