LOUIS Walsh surprised fans after he revealed that This Morning star Alison Hammond once auditioned for X Factor.

The music manager, 71, stunned viewers as he praised the ITV host in a rare moment.

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Louis Walsh recalled a This Morning star once auditioned on X FactorCredit: Eroteme

Louis was full of praise for Alison HammondCredit: Rex
On tonight’s show, Fern Britton opened up about fellow TV presenter Alison Hammond and said genuine personality has helped her career.

“Alison Hammond started on this show,” Fern told Louis.

Fern said: “Yeah, she was a contestant and I think she went out quite early, but that personality you can’t keep that down really.

“She’s a lovely girl.”

Louis then recalled: “Everyone likes her, she auditioned for X Factor as a kind of a jokey thing,” to which Fern replied: “I see, I didn’t know that.

“She’s progressed and progressed through hard work, being lovely to work with and bright,”

Irish star Louis then went onto praise the Alison as the consummate “professional”.

Louis, who has been critical of a number of celebs in the industry during his time in the house, left fans shocked by his kind words.

One wrote: “Wow I forgot Alison did that hilarious X Factor audition.”

A second posted: “Louis being nice for a change!!”

A third added: “I love Alison Hammond – she was a great contestant on Big Brother back in the day.”

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Alison surprised Louis, Sharon Osbourne and Simon Cowell 19 years ago when she appeared on the ITV singing contest.

The judges couldn’t believe their ears – but for all the wrong reasons.

Alison then belted out the lyrics to Mustang Sally by The Commitments.

But Simon halted the performance and begged: “Alison, Alison, Alison, Alison,” while waving his hand in the air.

Unfortunately it was a unanimous ‘no’ for Alison.

Sharon then exclaimed: “Who is this lady?”

Last year, Alison recalled the audition when Sharon appeared on This Morning.

Watching the clip in stitches, Alison said: “You can see the nerves on my face!

“It turned into something real, they were, like, really debating whether I was going through or not.”

“Really critiquing you,” Sharon laughed.

Alison recalled to Sharon: “You probably won’t remember when you first met me, because I was doing a behind the scenes on X Factor.

“They said, ‘Right, Alison, you’re gonna do an audition’, and I said, “Well, let the judges know that it’s just a joke and that I’m not really auditioning.”

“They went, ‘No, we’re not gonna tell them’.”

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Alison was a housemate on Big Brother in 2002