Former X Factor judge Louis Walsh – who was axed in favour of Nick Grimshaw – recently said some not-very-nice things about Cheryl, 32.
Louis, 61, claimed Cheryl is ‘lazy and irrelevant’, and suggested she is jealous of Nicole Scherzinger.
But her former Girls Aloud band mate and bestie Kimberley, 33, has insisted that music manager Louis will say anything to stay in the public eye.
Speaking to Fabulous magazine, Kimberley said: “[He] will say whatever it takes to get him in the press and nothing surprises me. I don’t really have that much time for him. I don’t owe him anything.
“He’d turn on anyone at any time if it meant it got him in the press.”
Kimberley, who was managed by Louis in the early days of Girls Aloud, also suggested that Louis’ career is over now he no longer has The X Factor.
She continued: “He doesn’t have any successful bands any more. X Factor was the only thing that was keeping him out there, so hopefully there won’t be any interest in what he’s got to say now.”
After his attack, Cheryl blasted Louis on Twitter. She wrote: “I am beginning to wonder if [he] has some kind of an obsession with me.
“I mean this is every year whether I am or am not a part of the show. And btw… this is the same man asking me what he should say to contestants on our way to the stage bc ‘he doesn’t know’ [sic].”