We wanted to know more, so who better to ask than his lovely mum, Shirley Ashworth.
We caught up with her just an hour after James became the winner of the X Factor at the after-show party and to say she’s a bit proud is like saying Taylor Swift’s had a couple of bad break-ups.
Shirley spoke to us exclusively about how she deals with being the mother of a sex symbol, his mentor Nicole Scherzinger, his struggles growing up, what you buy the X Factor winner for Christmas and how he wrote THREE albums in just THREE WEEKS last summer.
He’s the sex symbol of the X-Factor. How’s that with you being his mum, how do you find that?
Well he’s always been a star in my eyes and the fact that girls are attracted to him is no surprise because girls have always been attracted to him, they’ve been attracted to his soul and his heart. And now they’ve polished him up a little, the girls are seeing what I’ve always seen because he’s my little boy and he’s always been beautiful to me
What do you think of his mentor, Nicole?
She’s really lovely. I’ll tell you what, basically James couldn’t have had a better mentor. She has been so incredible to him, she’s been warm and giving and she’s let him keep his creativity. She’s let him remain true to himself and she’s let him, erm, grow and as I said to her on his homecoming actually I said ‘Thank you for looking after my boy the way I do because I feel that he’s blossomed’.
He’s definitely blossomed!
He just needed the world to give him that approval that, ‘Do you know what, I am alright, and I have validation’. On James’ first audition I actually said to Dermot, I said ‘I just can’t wait for James to get the recognition and the validation that he deserves’. For me and James, it’s not about fame, it’s not about money, it’s not about anything material, it’s about recognition for his music and validation for the artist, the true artist that he absolutely is. Because he is a true artist and all you’ve seen so far is a glorified cover artist.
What can we expect from James in the future?
When he sings his own music and gets in the studio. Prepare to be blown away, and I’m serious. Prepare. Because he is something else. He can write. Last summer, he sat in my living room and wrote three albums in three weeks. That’s what a hard worker he his. Three albums in three weeks. He’s incredible. He just has an ear, he just has a presence.
What I need to clear up is, everybody, every child that goes through a breakup, with their parents getting divorced, goes through a tough time. Of course they do, because it’s their parents splitting up. But James was only one when me and his Dad split up. It was probably my second marriage breaking up when he was fourteen that was the hardest hitting. And because we lived overseas for five years and we had everything- maids, drivers gardeners, he went to private school for five years you know, which people don’t know. He had an amazing life but then we came back to the UK and basically myself and my husband divorced and we went from being quite well off to having zero- he cleared the bank accounts out and everything- he left us with nothing, he left me and my four children with nothing.
You must be really proud of him.
The point I’m trying to make here is that it doesn’t matter what you have, whether it’s everything or nothing if you have sheer bloody determination and you never give up and you have a dream and you work hard enough you can do anything you want. And that’s what we’ve done, that’s what my daughters have done and that’s what my son has done, and that is the message I want James to put out there. He’s proved it – that it doesn’t matter where you come from, what has happened to you, you can absolutely achieve your dreams if you work hard.
What do you get the X-Factor winner for Christmas?!
Do you know, my son is not materialistic at all. What he will love is spending some quality time with me and the girls, and that’s what he will love.
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