Louis hit back: "Simon, this song is dedicated to you... It’s called Does Your Mother Know."

A show insider said: "Louis was seething. He was screaming at Simon about how he is so smug and he had gone too far with the personal attacks.

"Simon’s bodyguard Big Tony had to step between them because it got so heated. We all thought Louis was going to deck him."

The judges calmed down for the results show, but Simon was furious when Louis sent his act Ashley packing, and left the building without telling anyone.

The 47-year-old defended his actions yesterday, telling the Mirror Louis was "petty and vindictive".

"I called him spiteful because he used something personal against me to affect someone’s career and I don’t think that is acceptable."

But Louis, 54, yesterday hit back, branding Simon "childish and silly" and "unprofessional".

"It was unprofessional of Simon not to do the Xtra Factor. If Simon is so passionate about Ashley, he should give him a record deal."

Simon’s mum hit by car - Sept 26, 2020
X Factor judge Simon Cowell dashed to his mother’s hospital bedside after she was struck by a car, it emerged today.

The TV star’s mother, Julie Cowell, 80, was left badly injured when the vehicle reversed into her.

The former dancer has a suspected broken hip and could face a hip replacement operation following Friday’s accident.

Simon’s mum telephoned him after the incident and he went straight to her hospital bedside.

He stayed there the next day, watching X Factor with her before flying to the US to start filming a new series of American Idol.

"She’s a very sprightly 80-year-old. She still goes to aerobics every week so she’s very fit," said his publicist Max Clifford.

Simon told The Sun newspaper: "When I heard, I was worried to death. But she is as strong as an ox and her attitude was a bit like, ’What’s all the fuss about?’

"I was obviously relieved she is fine and already planning her 100th birthday party."

Simon Cowell has said if he could only take one thing to a desert island it would be a mirror - Aug 14, 2020
The ’X Factor’ judge, who has previously been branded the world’s vainest man, claims his reason for taking the item would be because he would "miss" himself. Cowell made the surprising comment on British Radio Four show ’Desert Island Discs’ - in which celebrities choose their favourite records.

Of the eight tunes he would choose to take if stranded on a desert island, Cowell only chose one recent pop hit, Daniel Bedingfield’s ’If You’re Not The One’. His other choices were all 50s and 60s ballads, including Bobby Darin’s 1959 recoding of ’Mack The Knife’.

When asked what his one luxury item would be, Cowell said: "Easy, a mirror. It’s because I’d miss me."

When the host asked: "Are you going to let us broadcast that?" Cowell laughed and replied: "I don’t care. I’m on my own, no one around, I might as well have a mirror."

Music mogul Cowell has often been ridiculed for his fashion sense, which includes a love of high-waisted trousers and tight t-shirts.

However, the 47-year-old star has repeatedly insisted he isn’t vain, saying "People have said I’m vain. I don’t think I am, actually. Because I actually don’t care."