Mild-mannered Joe McCaul surprised X Factor audiences last night when he angrily refused to speak to the cameras as he left the stage – but he’s now revealed the reason why.
The Irish singer has explained that he would have been too emotion to speak to presenters Olly Murs and Caroline Flack after he lost lost his chair on the controversial Six Chair Challenge.
Twitter users criticised the Athlone native’s “diva-like” behaviour, but he says it was simply because he was too devastated to speak.
Speaking to Breakfast Republic on 2fm, he said, “People were on Twitter saying I snubbed Olly and Caroline but I just felt like I was going to break down and I didn’t want to break down again on camera and I didn’t want to cry again on camera and I didn’t want to be the soppy, moany kind of…. even though I was a small bit moany beecause I walked past them, but I just couldn’t talk.”
He added: “I knew I couldn’t. I knew if I did I would have started roaring crying and I would have made an eejit of myself and it wasn’t happening.”
The 26-year-old had initially been given a chair by Simon Cowell only to have it taken away again later in the show.
And although he’s gutted not to have made the Judge’s Houses or the live shows, Joe says he thinks him leaving is a blessing in disguise.
“Going forward in the competition it would have got more pressurised, more stressful and I don’t know if I would have been able for that,” he admitted.