X Factor’s Christopher Maloney spends £60,000 on plastic surgery
By Will Stroude
Former X Factor finalist Christopher Maloney has revealed that he has spent £60,000 on cosmetic surgery after suffering a breakdown due the the abuse he received during his time on the show.
Maloney – who finished in third place behind James Arthur and Jahmene Douglas on the ninth series of the singing competition in 2012 – said that internet trolls destroyed his confidence after targeting him with death threats and abuse about his appearance.
Speaking to Philip Schofield and Christine Bleakley on This Morning yesterday (May 27), the 37-year-old admitted he couldn’t look at clips from his time on the ITV competition, telling them: “Looking back, it upsets me a little bit… I can’t look at myself, I just can’t look.
“X Factor was great, but as the series was going on and the further that I got in the competition, I was getting really bad trolls and they were telling me that they were going to kill me, shoot me, that I was ugly, that I had a big nose.
“And it just affected me so much and at the end of the final, I did have a breakdown. [Executive producer] Richard Holloway was fantastic, and The Priory came out and looked after me and I got classed as having a breakdown.”
On the cosmetic procedures he’s had since leaving the show, he admitted: “I would never think about surgery beforehand… But it just gets to you.
“It was drastic what I’ve had done. I’ve had three hair transplants… I’ve had an eye lift, a nose job, and all my teeth done. And I feel so much better now.
“I just hated myself. And now, I feel so much more confident. And I now look to the future.”
After Schofield suggested that he could have blocked the internet trolls, Maloney replied: “I did block a lot. But they got me at the lowest point of my life. It was continuous and I just hated myself. I hated looking at myself. I was analysing myself.
“And then I started to lose my hair throughout the show – it was stress induced hair loss. It was just coming out in the sink when I was going to do TV interviews or radio… you could see on the final [my hairline] was right the way back.”
Offering advice to this year’s X Factor hopfuls, he said: “I wouldn’t recommend going under the knife if you don’t need to… Just be strong and enjoy it.
“It’s a great platform. X Factor was absolutely amazing – the producers, the judges, Gary Barlow he was absolutely fantastic and gave me loads of support.”
Meanwhile, X Factor judges Louis Walsh and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini have been embroiled in a bitter battle of words ahead of this year’s upcoming 12th series, with Walsh – who has reportedly been dropped from this year’s panel – branding the former Girls Aloud star “lazy” and “irrelevant”.
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