Page 112 of Going Solo

“The farm?” I frowned. “You knew you belonged here?”

Cole rolled his eyes. “With you, you numbskull.”

“Ooooohhh, yeah. Smooth. I like it.”

“Shhh. You’re ruining it.”

“Sorry, I really trod on your moment there, didn’t I?”

The sound of small children squealing in delight signalled the end of our peace and quiet. Cole leapt up. “Clothes on, mister. The invasion has begun.”

POP STAR SHOCKER!

Cole blows the lid on TV show’s dark secrets

Cole Kennedy’s WebFlix documentary, “A Fire Inside Me,” has revealed a cornucopia of scandalous abuses at the heart of the TV show that made him famous.

Kennedy and other celebrities interviewed for the show—including former judge Robbie Johnswagger and series one winner Jocasta Rose—levelled a plethora of disturbing accusations at Felicity Quant’s Totally Television and the producers of “Make Me a Pop Star.”

Revelations include contestants being forced to sign complicated contracts after days with little sleep, often without parental or independent legal advice, “gruelling” sixteen-hour rehearsal sessions, the exploitation of mentally and emotionally vulnerable people for entertainment purposes and contestants being sent home from the show with absolutely no aftercare.

Kennedy revealed how producers forced him back into the closet and booted his teenage sweetheart, now boyfriend, Tobias Lyngstad off the show so female fans wouldn’t realise he was gay. He alleged producers deliberately humiliated Lyngstad by turning “marriage material” into a phenomenon, then stole and leaked their private messages to the press to drive a wedge between the young lovers.

The documentary also cast doubt on the explosive claims made by Kennedy’s ex, Jasper Horner, in his tell-all memoir, with a series of witnesses, including a New York paramedic, giving versions of events markedly different to Horner’s.

Backing up Kennedy’s scandalous claims about Totally Records’ business practices, singer Jocasta Rose revealed Quant had subjected her to “routine body-shaming, crash diets and dangerous weight loss.”

Rose split with Totally Records a decade ago and said Quant “has done everything in her power to try to tie me up in legal disputes over my music, including songs I wrote, for years.”

“I wouldn’t let anyone I know or love sign a contract with Totally Records,” Rose said. “It’s an abusive relationship, and you’ll spend years trying to escape it.”

Rose yesterday released a funk version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” arranged by Kennedy. Rose has previously revealed that she and Kennedy have written and will perform several duets on her next album.

The documentary also revealed Johnswagger was sacked from “Pop Star” not for drinking, as Totally Television claimed, but for standing up to Quant and the show’s producers over the treatment of contestants and Totally Records’ signed artists.

Quant has been contacted for comment.

BOMBSHELL BACKTRACK!

Kennedy’s ex claims Quant “made me lie” in £2M book deal

Cole Kennedy’s disgruntled ex is backing away from the scandalous allegations he made about the pop star in his tell-all memoir.

Jasper Horner’s claims of Kennedy’s drug abuse, sexual proclivities and rock and roll lifestyle put the skids under the pop star’s career when it was released last summer. But now Horner claims he “feels used” by Felicity Quant.

“She offered me two million quid to tell my story,” he said. “She tore up all the NDAs and contracts I’d signed. I didn’t even have to write the book, just sign the deal. She arranged the ghostwriter, all I had to do was tell him my story.

“But what’s in that book is not what I said. Felicity didn’t let me see it until it was already printed and on its way to bookstores. By then it was too late. When I told her I wanted nothing to do with the claims in the book, she waved my contract in my face and told me I had no choice but to stick to ‘my’ story.”

Horner said he was speaking out now because he wanted to add his voice to the flood of stories about Quant’s business practices that have emerged since Kennedy’s WebFlix documentary was released.

“I’m genuinely sorry to Cole for the hurt all this must have caused,” he said. “I was a terrible person when we were dating. I was struggling with addiction. Like Cole, I’m clean now. I can’t put right what I did back then, but I can set the record straight about our relationship and the rubbish that was written in that book.”

Quant could not be contacted for comment.

COMMENT

The Last Hallelujah: Why we won’t miss “Make Me a Pop Star”

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