Zara McDermott says ‘nasty’ The X Factor: Celebrity comments were the ‘worst thing ever’ – EXCLUSIVE

Love Island’s Zara McDermott has revealed her upset after reading “nasty” comments about her online in response to her The X Factor: Celebrity performance on Saturday night.

The 22 year old has been very open about her confidence issues in the build up to her appearance on the new ITV talent show, where she performed as part of group The Islanders which is made up of former islanders Zara, Wes Nelson, Eyal Booker and Samira Mighty.

Zara and the rest of The Islanders performed Shawn Mendes’ There’s No Holding Me Back and were told they had “potential” by Nicole Scherzinger, while Simon Cowell said it was “good” for a “first audition”.

But, the group's performance received mixed reviews online, with some being quite scathing about the reality group on Twitter.

And Zara has exclusively told OK! online she “cried” after looking her name up on Twitter and reading “nasty“ comments.

The TV star said: “All of us reality people we all say to each other: ‘Don’t look yourself up on Twitter, you’ll upset yourself’ and I made the mistake of looking myself up, thinking there was gonna be some nice comments – probably looking for a bit of reassurance."

She added: “It wasn’t the nicest place to be honest. It really upset me.”

As Zara scrolled through the comments, she told how people said she was “the weakest one” and looked “awkward” and “uncomfortable” on stage.

The X Factor: Celebrity hopeful then broke down in tears in front of her family and boyfriend Sam Thompson and said the comments were “the worst thing ever” after she opened up to the public about her confidence issues before the show aired.

She said: “It was just the worst thing ever, to go through all of that, laying yourself out on the table and making yourself so vulnerable.

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“I almost thought that by sharing my story it would mean that people wouldn’t pick on me,” she said. “It’s a shame that there’s still that portion of people that still couldn’t understand how much it took to do that.”

Zara was comforted by her Made In Chelsea boyfriend Sam, who she said, without him she would still feel “like a nervous wreck” after the emotional weekend.

Reacting to the comments in retrospect, she added: “Who wouldn’t feel awkward and uncomfortable performing for the first time in front of flipping Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh you know? Like who wouldn’t feel a bit uncomfortable if you’ve never performed before.”

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She added: “The point is I’m not a professional that’s the whole point of the show is for them to look for potential.

“I’m not professional I don’t claim to be the best singer or the best best dancer but I’m giving it a go and it’s just a shame people couldn’t see that too.”

But, Zara is determined not to let the cruel criticism get her down. “It’s made me wanna put another singing video up on Instagram so I can be like: ‘look guys none of your comments stopped me’,” she said.

The hopeful singer said the other members of the group also received “nasty comments” online, but the others have helped “keep her grounded”.

Speaking about Samira, Eyal and Wes, Zara said: “Having the three of them there is an absolute blessing because if say Eyal or Samira was on the other end of the phone crying to me it would almost seal me to be more emotional.

“But, having the three of them to be like, ‘No! we did so well, and we tried our absolute best and having them to bring you back down [to earth] is the best thing you need for when you’re in a bad place.”

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