Samantha Womack has claimed that she was Simon Cowell’s first choice for Britain’s Got Talent.

The former Eastenders actress has revealed that held a series of meetings with the music mogul at his LA Home, after she left the BBC soap but in the end couldn’t agree to be on the panel of the ITV show, because of other jobs.

The stunning actress is currently playing the leading role Ensign Nellie Forbush, a U.S. Navy nurse from Little Rock, Arkansas, in the Lincoln Center production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical South Pacific at the Barbican Theatre in London. She is contracted to the show until March and so would not have been able to attend a number of auditions for Britain’s Got Talent.

She told The Mirror:

“Simon invited me to Los Angeles. I spent a lot of time at his house while we talked about me joining the show.

“But the dates didn’t work out because I am contracted to South Pacific until March.”

The news most likely won’t sit well with Alesha Dixon, who ended up on the panel in Sam’s place, especially after Simon admitted last week that 70% of the reason he asked the Strictly Come Dancing judge to join his series, was to annoy BBC bosses.

Dixon is said to have had another uncomfortable moment at the Cardiff auditions last weekend. She was flirting with a handsome saxophone player at the tryouts, only to find out that he had actually played at her doomed wedding to ex-husband MC Harvey.

Today she wakes up to the news that her ex not only cheated on her with Javine, but in 2010 went on to date her close pal Cheryl Cole.