Stacy Francis has admitted that she was saddened to hear that Paula Abdul has been axed from The X Factor USA.

The single mother from Brooklyn, New York reached the live finals of the hit Fox talent show last year and was mentored by Nicole Scherzinger throughout the series. However it seems that she made more of a connection with Paula.

On hearing that Nicole, Paula and Steve Jones have been dropped from The X Factor, Stacy took to Twitter to say:

“I am so sorry to hear that @PaulaAbdul wasn’t asked back to do the X FACTOR. She made the contestants feel important and loved. It is a real care and concern not just for the cameras. And as artist we needed that so much because of the stress of the show. Its sad. (sic).”

The 42 year old also linked across to an interview she did with The Hollywood Reporter on the subject and in it, she claimed that she was not shocked by Nicole’s departure, because she felt the Pussycat Dolls star had a ‘hard time’ on the show.

She added:

“The show is a lot different than anything we’ve seen and I’m not sure that she always knew how to handle it. I think it’s all very unfortunate.”

Francis also implied that Scherzinger didn’t spend enough time mentoring her contestants last year and told the publication that while Paula Abdul worked closely with her groups each week, because of Nicole’s career and music commitments, she often kept in touch via Skype only.

She admitted that Simon Cowell noticed the lack of commitment and described one incident when he put Nicole in her place, saying:

“Simon came over to me and said ‘Stacy, this is Nicole; Nicole, this is Stacy.’ I think that was his way of saying that he wanted her spending more time there.’