'X Factor' 2016: Judge Sharon Osbourne Promises 'Tears' On New Series

Sharon Osbourne has admitted she won’t be going easy on this year’s ‘X Factor’ contestants.

Auditions for the upcoming 13th series of the ITV show are now underway, with Sharon now back on the judging panel, alongside fellow returning judges Louis Walsh, Nicole Scherzinger and Simon Cowell.

She’s now spoken about her return to the show, and assured ‘X Factor’ devotees that she’ll be every bit as candid and blunt as we’ve come to expect.

Speaking to The Sun about the audition process, she explained: “I don’t want to hurt anyone, but unfortunately the nerves and rejection during the audition process does often cause some tears.

“I’m a mum and a grandma, I don’t want to intentionally hurt anyone who comes to audition but sometimes you have to say no.”

It’s no surprise Sharon is in no mood to humour the new set of hopefuls, particularly given what she said about the show following her departure in 2014.

Speaking to Conan O’Brien at the time, she fumed: “If one more person stands in front of me and sings, I tell you. I’ve had it with people singing at me and I’ve had it watching people sing on TV.

“They’ve all got something wrong - they’ve either got one lung, one kidney, they’ve all got somebody sick in hospital and it’s like, ‘Oh lord, just shut up and sing.’ But then when they sing, it’s like, ‘Please stop it. I can’t take it any more.’”

The new series of ‘The X Factor’ kicks off later this year.