Despite the fact that he hasn’t spoken to his son in more than a year, the father of X Factor contestant, Danyl Johnson, thought it would be a good idea to share stories with The Sun. It’s amazing really. One sniff of stardom and all the clingers on crawl out of the woodwork.

Owen McCubbin first shared about the death of Danyl’s sister 23 years ago. He said: “There was a baby girl that died. It was a cot death and was very upsetting for the whole family.”

A source close to the family added: “The whole family were hit very hard. Yasmine’s death was very sudden.

“Danyl had got used to having the baby around. He would play with her and help to look after her.

“It was a big shock. Yasmine was only a few months old.”

Owen says that he shed tears of pride watching his son on Saturday night, saying: “I was nervous – not because I thought he would be bad, but because I am his dad.

“I never doubted for a second he would be anything but great. I was so pleased for him.

“Nobody deserves this more than Danyl – he’s worked so hard for it.”