X Factor - Louis Walsh admits judges houses are fake

12 October - X Factor judge Louis Walsh has admitted that the exotic houses billed as "the judges' houses" in the show are not their real homes.

Last week viewers saw 24 hopefuls being taken to four different locations, allegedly their mentors' homes, before the final 12 contestants were chosen.

Simon Cowell took his group to Marbella, Dannii Minogue's group travelled to Ibiza, Sharon Osbourne's hopefuls went to Los Angeles and Louis Walsh took his group to Dublin.

But Louis Walsh revealed on the Graham Norton Show that these were not actually the judges' real homes.

"That wasn't my house. That wasn't Sharon's house or Dannii's house or Simon's house either," he said.

"Sharon sold her house to Christina Aguilera, so that was a rented house. Mine was a rented house. I wouldn't have had all that rubbish in my house - the stuff on the walls and the lights and all that."

An ITV spokesperson admitted: "The contestants are invited to a house. We call them the judges' houses, not the judges' homes."

"Sharon had only just moved in to her new home and hadn't even unpacked so we couldn't have filmed it there."

"We have never said they are the judges' real homes and it has been this way for the past four years." 

Read all about the X Factor finalists - and see their in-depth profiles.