Walsh's X Factor house 'not his'

Walsh has been a judge on all four series of The X Factor

X Factor judge Louis Walsh has admitted the "judges' houses" seen in the ITV show are not their real homes.

Viewers saw the 24 hopefuls jet off around the world to perform for their mentors in Saturday's episode.

But Walsh told BBC Two's Graham Norton Show: "That wasn't my house. That wasn't Sharon's house or Dannii's house or Simon's house either."

A spokeswoman insisted viewers had not been deceived as the rented houses were never referred to as their "homes".

Lavish townhouse

X Factor viewers saw Simon Cowell's groups invited to a mansion in Marbella, where he was filmed surveying the grounds from his balcony with a luxury sports car parked outside.

Sharon Osbourne was filmed at a property in Los Angeles, Dannii Minogue in an Ibizan villa and Walsh in a lavishly furnished Dublin townhouse.

Walsh said: "Sharon sold her house to Christina Aguilera, so that was a rented house. Mine was a rented house. I wouldn't have had all that rubbish in my house - the stuff on the walls and the lights and all that."

A spokeswoman for the show said: "The contestants are invited to a house. We call them the judges' houses, not the judges' homes.

"Sharon had only just moved in to her new home and hadn't even unpacked so we couldn't have filmed it there.

"We have never said they are the judges' real homes and it has been this way for the past four years."