Jedward hit back at 'spiteful' Louis Walsh

Irish pop singers Jedward have hit back at former X Factor judge Louis Walsh after he told his fellow Celebrity Big Brother housemates the duo were "vile".

The twins, who were mentored by Walsh on the talent show in 2009, called his comments "spiteful and disrespectful".

The pair watched Tuesday's episode of Big Brother with TV star Gemma Collins.

In a video filmed afterwards in her hot tub, the singers said: "You've got to stand up for yourself when someone tries to throw you under the bus."

Collins added: "Louis, don't be slagging off my boys. They're not vile or they wouldn't be in my hot tub."

The row erupted when actor Colson Smith asked Walsh what Jedward were like. "They were vile... I done five million quid with them, I swear on my mother's life," he replied.

"They were vile, they were novelty, they were great for the show."

The ITV show's live audience were heard booing and chanting "Get Louis out" when voting was announced.

John and Edward Grimes, 32, were teenagers when they appeared on The X Factor, and were later managed by Walsh.

In a string of posts on X, they called him "cold hearted" and said he "didn't even send us flowers when our mom died".

They added: "Louis reopened these wounds all by himself being spiteful and disrespectful we aren't going to have our character taken. Justice will be served."

A representative for Walsh declined to comment.

Walsh, 71, and fellow X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne haven't shied away from giving their opinions about other stars in the Celebrity Big Brother house.

In one of the first episodes, Osbourne and Walsh had a conversation about their X Factor co-star Simon Cowell.

"He would always say 'change, change, change'. You're the one that needs changing, mate," Osbourne said.

"Someone who dresses the same for three decades, they don't see that it's not right. No-one's gonna tell him, but everything, the same, the same, the same."

Walsh, nodding along, said he no longer speaks to Cowell: "I haven't talked to him at all, nothing. Zero."

In another conversation, Osbourne and Walsh laid into actor and presenter James Corden, Vogue magazine's editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, and TV host Ellen DeGeneres, whose name prompted Osbourne to pretend to vomit.

Osbourne, 71, who was referred to as "celebrity lodger" by ITV, left the show after eight days on Tuesday.

She reportedly said she didn't want "to stay away from Ozzy for too long". Her rock star husband has Parkinson's disease, and has had a string of operations to correct spinal damage.

The other Big Brother housemates included the Princess of Wales' uncle Gary Goldsmith, who was the first celebrity to be voted out on Friday.

The show, which is airing on ITV after a six-year hiatus, has attracted the biggest audience in over a decade, with 3.8 million viewers tuning in to last week's launch.