Christopher Maloney isn’t bearing any ill will towards Louis Walsh he insists, despite the recent slur on his character.

The X Factor judge branded the 34 year singer a ‘diva’ on last week’s Xtra Factor show, and as soon as the words were out of his mouth, both Tulisa Contostavlos and Nicole Scherzinger jumped on the bandwagon and said that they’d heard the same thing from their contestants.

Liverpudlian Chris has subsequently spent almost every interview he has conducted this week, denying the reports and insisting that Louis was talking rubbish. He claims the Irish star even admitted as much backstage.

Maloney said:

“It’s not true at all. I spoke to Louis afterwards and I just said to him ‘why did you say it?’. He said ‘Christopher you were the first person that popped into my head.’ ”

However, during a brief chat on This Morning, he insisted that he isn’t bearing any grudges towards Lou Lou and added:

“I love the guy.”

He wasn’t quite so positive when he spoke to Caroline Flack on Sunday night though and after hearing what the judges were saying about him, Chris accused them of ‘tactical’ judging, saying:

“I think it is tactical. To be honest with you Louis only sees me when I’m on stage. You know how hard I work behind the scenes and stuff so I think it’s very tactical.”

He doesn’t have much time to worry about how Louis’ comments might affect voting this weekend though, because as we type, Maloney is hard at work in the ITV studios, working on his performance for tomorrow night’s show.

He just tweeted:

‘Hi everyone, hope u liked this morning! Got dragged out of rehearsals lol. Back to rehearsals now, enjoy ur day x’

The former call centre worker has promised fans that he will work closely with Gary to pick a better – and hopefully less cheesy – song this weekend, one that fits with the love and heartbreak theme and revealed:

‘Just off to rehearsals with the 1 an only @GBarlowOfficial to sort out this weeks song, im working so hard to get it right. Enjoy ur day. X’

What do you think of the judges criticism of Christopher? Do you like the fact that they delve into gossip, instead of concentrating on the singing?

Leave your comments below….