Nicole Scherzinger doesn’t think she has the winner on The X Factor 2017.
The returning X Factor judge has confessed she is backing an act in another category.
Nicole has won the show twice now with James Arthur in 2012 and Matt Terry in 2016.
However even “very competitive” Nicole is doubtful of a third title, this year at least.
She said: “I’m always very competitive. I put a million per cent into everything I do, but two years in a row? I don’t know about that.
“Plus I don’t even know who I am taking to the live shows [yet].”
In a chat with HELLO! magazine (via The List), Nicole went on say she thinks this year’s winner is being mentored by someone else.
She explained: “It’s interesting because I have a feeling about somebody who is going to win – but they’re not in my category.
“I’m upset because [the producers] were going to give me a category and I said, ‘No, I want this one instead’. I got what I wanted but I really should have had what they were going to give me.
“But that’s OK. It will work out. Everything happens for a reason.”
> X Factor 2017 judges’ categories REVEALED
Meanwhile, on returning to the show for a second series alongside Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell, Nicole said: “It’s like family. You don’t talk, then when you see each other it’s like you were with each other all along.
“We love each other, we really do. We have dinners together, we hang out. We just sit and chat all day during the auditions.”
The X Factor 2017 auditions continue this Saturday and Sunday night on ITV.