Working with Dannii Minogue on X Factor was ‘unbelievably bad’

She said she found working with her to be “unbearable” as Minogue became increasingly close to show boss and head judge Simon Cowell and began calling the shots.

And in Osbourne’s new autobiography, being serialised by The Sun, she said the situation between her and the Australian singer – who it later transpired had been having an affair with Cowell – became “unbelievably bad”.

Osbourne said of Minogue: “The antics behind the screen had gone up a gear with her sticking her tongue in Simon’s ear and giggling like a bloody teenager as Louis Walsh and I stood there like a couple of gooseberries.

“For me it made her so unbearable to work with that I just couldn’t take it. It was horrible. My stomach knotted with anxiety about it and as each show loomed I would wake up and think ‘Oh God, I have to spend the day sitting alongside her again’.

“During filming it was obvious to me that there was some sort of relationship going on between them. And the more it progressed, the worse it became between her and me. It was unbelievably bad.”

She said Minogue would walk past her without even making eye contact and, after three enjoyable series, Minogue’s arrival meant it was “rapidly turning into an odious chore – I found it hard dealing with a sulker”.

Osbourne quit the series in 2008 after protracted negotions about fees but adds in her book Unbreakable – to be published on October 10 – that “the Dannii business was in there too”.