Simon claims he knows the reason behind Cheryl’s drastic weight loss

With the first-round auditions of The X Factor kicking off earlier this month, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini has been back in the spotlight on an almost daily basis, and one thing fans have been quick to notice is her noticeably thinner frame.

The former Girls Aloud singer has always been relatively slim, especially over the last four or five years, but when she stepped out in a tiny crop top and palazzo pants combo last week in Manchester, her dramatically smaller waist and thinner arms were on full display. Cheryl has already defended her weight loss on social media on two separate occasions over the last two weeks, and now her close friend and fellow X Factor judge Simon Cowell has spoken out too.

Speaking to The Sun over the weekend, Simon said that Cheryl "eats like a horse" and that her weight loss has not been intentional. "This is not someone who's trying to make herself thin," he explained.

"I think she did pick up a bug and I think the way she's approaching what was addressed about her weight in a very open way – by saying she is thin and trying to put on weight – I don't think she would have done that two years ago."

Taking to Twitter two weeks ago, Cheryl hit back at critics of her weight, saying, "You have no idea what I have been through. Just losing my father in law v recently and everything that comes with that. Not that I am [too thin] or should justify myself to anyone."

Simon even insisted that Cheryl has the same appetite as he does, admitting they went on a fast food hunt around Manchester together last week. "For some reason we wanted a Wimpy rather than a McDonalds. We couldn't find one in the end but we found another burger shop and she had the same as me," he told the newspaper.

Speaking to reporters at the auditions last week, Cheryl herself said she was "eating lots" to help her regain some of the weight she had lost.