Frankie Cocozza: 'I went mental... I was an idiot'
The X Factor reject Frankie Cocozza admitted he has been an 'idiot' after boasting about taking drugs. The 18-year-old, who was kicked out of the show on Tuesday for breaking the rules, confessed he has taken cocaine six times in his life. The party-loving teenager also revealed he has slept with seven girls since he became a contestant. Frankie said: "All I can say is I will regret this for the rest of my life. I was an idiot and it was just a stupid thing to do. I feel bad about letting the fans down and I'd like to apologise to the people who voted for me. I'm really, really sorry." Frankie also apologised to his mentor Gary Barlow and the staff of the ITV1 show. Show chiefs axed the teenager after he was heard bragging about drugs, which programme bosses said broke the rules. In his interview, the mop-haired singer said he first tried cocaine as a 16-year-old school leaver. He said: "I've never bought coke myself, but I've done it about six times when I've been pissed and it has been offered to me. The most I've done is four lines in one go." Frankie also confessed to trying illegal high mephedrone in the past, and said he had 'smoked a lot of weed'. But he insisted he isn't an addict and does not need to go to rehab. The teenager said he went off the rails after Saturday's show because he was criticised in front of millions of viewers following a below-par performance. "I was embarrassed and totally devastated by what they said about me, so I went mental - a bit too mental as it turned out," he told the newspaper.
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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.
An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.