X Factor star told false claims he was 'adopted' would be revealed hours before final

Steve Brookstein won the very first series of the X Factor back in 2004 and has claimed he was informed of shocking claims about his family that were due to be published before the live final

X Factor winner Steve Brookstein has made a shock claim about his time on the show.

The singer, 55, competed on the ITV singing competition back in 2004 and won the first ever series of the show. Steve has been critical of the X Factor over the years since he competed and has since made a new claim. Posting on X, Steve wrote: "In 2004 just before the live final my manager (also put One Direction together) told me 'News Of The World is going to run a story tomorrow saying that you are adopted and your parents are drug dealers from Birmingham!'

"Mind games were crazy. I called my mum to confirm." Earlier this year, Steve hit out at former X Factor judges Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh, with him referring to them as "massive c**ts". His comments came as the pair appeared on Celebrity Big Brother together in March.

They were both on the judging panel at the time on Steve's win alongside show creator Simon Cowell. Upon hearing of Sharon and Louis making a TV comeback for Celebrity Big Brother, Steve wrote on X: "Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne. Celebrity Big Brother Utter K**tz."

One person responded to him: "I remember him constantly comparing you to Westlife [whom he manages] as if they're the Beatles." Steve replied: "He was saying their version of Against All Odds was better than mine. Whoop-dee-doo!" Teasing that he could enter the Big Brother house, someone else commented: "You should offer to drop in for a couple of days!" Steve however responded to the suggestion in a tweet: "You mean drop kick them for a couple of days?"

In a further post, Steve wrote: "If people saw Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh for what they are - they wouldn't be watching #cbbuk." During his time on X Factor, there was tension between Steve and the other two judges during the series. Steve later claimed the late Max Clifford orchestrated a "media hate campaign" against him and once alleged that Sharon called him a "f***ing c***" during a rehearsal.

Speaking in 2017, when Clifford died, Steve said in a social media post: "13 years today I will never forget. It was the eve of the first X Factor final and I had to go to Simon's mansion for a fake dinner to be filmed. Microwaved M&S dinner with a side order of playing with my emotions."

He went on: "It was the beginning of a 13 year living hell. The man responsible for orchestrating a media hate campaign against me was PR guru Max Clifford. 'Talk to the press and we'll bury you' he once told me. Max Clifford has just died in prison after a heart attack while cleaning his cell. Unlucky."

Steve also spoke out about Clifford in his autobiography, Getting Over The X, which was released in 2014 - the same year Clifford was jailed for eight counts of indecent assault against women and girls as young as 15.

When approached for comment, Freemantle who produced X Factor declined to comment.

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