Former X Factor contestant Lucie Jones has revealed that Simon Cowell pays a right hand man to mentor his acts on the show.

The 18 year old who was mentored by Dannii this year, admitted that Simon is often too busy to deal with his singers and so pays Tim Byrne, a director and producer at his label Syco Music, to look after them instead.

Lucie told The News Of The World:

“Simon has a man who helps him with the acts during the week, then it gets to Friday and he’ll see his acts and often not really like it.

“Jamie found it difficult because Simon would change his song on the Friday and he’d be like, ‘but you haven’t even been here’.”

A source told the newspaper: “It’s part of the show to make it look like the judges are hands-on with acts. But the amount of time they spend with them varies.

“Simon’s the least involved. He’s the busiest, of course he has help. Tim and Simon are very close and he trusts his judgement.”