Diana Vickers: My X-Factor reunion with Dermot O’Leary was spoilt by an X-rated confession

A drunken confession about Diana Vickers snogging her gay best friend left Dermot O’Leary so uncomfortable that he walked away from his former X-Factor co-star, Jack Guinness has revealed. 

Guinness, a fashion journalist, spilled the tea on the awkward encounter during the latest episode of Metro’s Just Between Us podcast.

The writer explained he had spotted O’Leary backstage at Glastonbury and, admitting he was drunk, thought it would be amusing to orchestrate a reunion between the pair.

Vickers, 34, and O’Leary had worked together on X-Factor series 5 in 2008, where the singer-turned-podcast host reached the talent show’s semi-finals.

‘The idea of two X-Factor legends reuniting backstage at Glastonbury tickled my gay funny bone,’ Guinness joked on the podcast.

Vickers recalled: ‘You absolutely loved it – so we went over there to speak to him. Dermot’s like the nicest guy in the industry, he’s so sweet.’

But the reunion took an awkward turn when Guinness’s boyfriend Ollie joined the conversation.

‘Jack’s boyfriend Ollie was there too and was sort of lingering as we were speaking to Dermot,’ Vickers explained. ‘Jack then introduced Ollie as his boyfriend.’

When O’Leary mistakenly asked if Ollie was Diana’s boyfriend instead, the conversation took a strange turn.

‘Ollie then got really awkward and out of nowhere said to Dermot: ‘She’s not my girlfriend, but we do have a sexual attraction. We explored it once,” Guinness recounted.

The confession referred to a forgotten kiss between Vickers and Ollie, leaving O’Leary visibly confused and uncomfortable.

‘Dermot got the ick’, Guinness joked.

‘He got really weirded out and wandered off. It was a testament to how many gay guys Diana has made out with that she didn’t remember the kiss.’

Guinness, who is a Contributing Editor at British GQ, later admitted on the podcast that he was initially drawn to Diana because of her X-Factor stardom. The pair have been friends for more than a decade.

‘I remember seeing you for the first time from across the bar at Daisy Lowe’s birthday party’, he said.

‘I had a few cocktails and went to my friends – oh my God, that’s Diana Vickers off the X-Factor! I am going to talk to her.

‘We were talking, and you very politely said – Jack, you’re on fire.

‘I went I know I’m a legend and she went, no, you’re literally on fire. I was wearing hair extensions, and they had set on fire on a candle.

‘I finished up skating around in flames – I had third degree burns.’

To listen to Jack and Diana break down the VMA awards and that raunchy Wuthering Heights trailers, search for Just Between Us now, wherever you get your podcasts.