X Factor Maloney's cruise secret

X Factor wannabe Chris Maloney's stage fright has been called into question after it was revealed he used to work as a cruise ship singer.

The 34-year-old from Liverpool was shown auditioning on the show at the weekend claiming he was crippled with nerves before managing to belt out a Bette Midler number.

But his former boss Mollie Daley, who was a judge on Sky One's Showboaters, revealed to The Sun that she signed Chris up in 2000 to perform on a cruise ship.

On the show Gary Barlow asked Chris: "How the hell have you kept that voice hidden till now?" Chris replied: "I've never put myself out there like this before. Today I've just bitten the bullet."

Mollie, who manages an agency providing show teams to cruise ships said: "I was astonished when I listened to all these claims by Chris to Gary Barlow that no one had given him a chance.

"That was so disingenuous of him. He came to us in 2000 after spotting our advert in The Stage. He had a big voice which was a bit rough around the edges, but we knew we had to have him. And we gave him months of vocal coaching. It's strange that he says he was so nervous, because he didn't show a hint of nerves when he was on stage with us.

"In fact he became so popular he ended up recording an album that we sold on board."

Chris, 34, told the newspaper: "I've worked as a cruise ship singer and did bingo calling and family quizzes years ago, but only for a few hundred people. It was nothing like X Factor. It's all new to me."