X Factor legend dies on the age of 64 after operating intently with Simon Cowell for 8 years at the ITV display

An X Factor legend has died on the age of 64 after operating intently with Simon Cowell at the display for 8 years.

Bodyguard Tony Adkins – who used to be referred to as Big Tony – died on Easter Sunday whilst on a rugby excursion, a circle of relatives member showed on social media. 

Tony labored intently with Simon as a bodyguard at the ITV display, and in addition performed a large in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two in 2011.

Sharing a photograph of Tony, his cousin wrote: ‘It is with nice disappointment my circle of relatives want to announce that my Cousin Big Tony, Simon Cowell’s ex bodyguard, passed on to the great beyond on Easter Sunday whilst on a Rugby Tour.

‘He used to be a loveable Rogue and might be ignored very a lot, RIP Big T.’

Hammersmith and Fulham RFC additionally shared their very own tribute to Tony on Facebook, writing: ‘It is with immense disappointment that Hammersmith & Fulham RFC will pay tribute to a real gent and nice Hammer, Tony Adkins, who passed on to the great beyond on Easter Sunday while on excursion with the Club in Poland.

Known as Big Tony, the bodyguard and actor labored with Simon Cowell at the ITV display. He died on Easter Sunday all the way through a rugby excursion in Poland, his cousin shared on social media

‘Tony used to be a Hammers’ guy in each sense of the phrase, becoming a member of the membership some 40 years in the past along Henry Compton School contemporaries and fellow Hammers legends Ray Bateman, Dick Wayman, Pascal Peters, Dave Clark, and lecturers Martin Williams, Ed Naylor, Doug Bone, and John Mathewman. 

‘A decent head prop by means of industry, Tony might be nonetheless discovered pulling at the boots neatly into the 2000s, or even featured within the membership’s 25th anniversary recreation.

‘Tony used to be, at middle, a traveling Hammer, and he favored not anything greater than taking the Hammers logo of Rugby past the bounds of London. 

‘He represented the membership everywhere Britain and Europe, beginning together with his first excursion in Brixham and occurring to earn traveling badges from puts as a long way afield as Barcelona, Prague and Amsterdam. 

‘While his loss is difficult to undergo, it brings some convenience to those who knew him that he handed whilst doing what he liked – traveling with the men.

‘More than a Rugby participant, Tony discovered a distinct segment later in existence beneath the intense lighting, serving as a long-time bodyguard for Simon Cowell all the way through his time on X-factor, and that includes within the Harry Potter franchise as a large, which all agreed used to be becoming.

‘His friendliness and generosity might be ignored by means of all who knew him, and our ideas are together with his circle of relatives. Vale Tony.’

After leaving his task as a bodyguard on The X Factor, Tony shared perception into operating with the song tycoon in an interview with The Mirror.

Tony labored intently with Simon as a bodyguard at the ITV display, and in addition performed a large in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two in 2011

He stated: ‘Simon used to be so laid-back and a really nice man.

‘He used to be beneficiant, too. Whenever the display completed – and at Christmas – you would get an envelope as a thanks. The closing one I were given had £700 crammed in it.

‘He’s an overly non-public particular person. He does not give a lot away. You by no means see him under the influence of alcohol or out of regulate.’

Tony went onto expose that Simon used to be ‘useless’ and would ‘do his hair’ all the way through an wreck from filming.  

Several former X Factor contestants have pop out and slammed the display in recent times, together with Katie Waissel, Rebecca Ferguson, Cher Lloyd and Jedward. 

In October, former winner Matt Terry slammed the display, pronouncing he hopes it ‘by no means’ returns to displays and it is ‘now not just right for folks’.

The singer gained the 13th sequence of the ITV display in 2016 and signed to Simon Cowell’s label Syco in a while thereafter.

But reputation does not come simple for lots of the display’s individuals with Matt claiming some ex-contestants nonetheless battle with it as of late, six years after the display ended.

Asked if he thinks the display must come again, he informed MailOnline: ‘Never! It’s now not just right – it isn’t just right for folks. I’m robust, and I understand how I handled it.

‘You move in there and you are constructed up, and I used to be a waiter previously, so I’d by no means executed anything else of the type, and you are more or less thrust in.

‘If X Factor comes again, I simply hope they put some type of mental second in for folks. There are individuals who have come years sooner than me, which can be nonetheless at a loss for words and battle with their id.

‘I’m in order that satisfied I were given to a spot the place I believe like, you already know what, I did it, it is a part of my tale, however it isn’t all of me. I will be able to’t let this something outline me.’

Matt, who launched his debut album Trouble in 2017, informed how he struggled to adjusted to reputation after the display.

He additionally discovered there used to be ‘no make stronger’ when the sequence ended and he ‘struggled’ after.

He stated: ‘For me it felt like I’d completed the display, and rancid you move into the large huge global, by yourself. There used to be no make stronger, and I simply did not realise it.

‘When I got here off the display, it modified my existence, and it opened many doorways, however I struggled unquestionably. Afterwards, there wasn’t someone there to assist me.

‘I’m thankful that I’ve were given a just right set of pals and cast circle of relatives, which is fortunate as a result of now not everyone has that, to mention, ‘You’re human, you are tremendous, you are now not simply an X Factor winner, however you are additionally Matt Terry, the individual.’

A spokesperson for The X Factor informed MailOnline: ‘We take the welfare of everybody fascinated by our displays extraordinarily critically and all the way through Matt’s time at the display in 2016, there have been powerful measures in position to make sure everybody concerned within the making of the programme used to be supported right through their enjoy and past.

‘Including a devoted welfare staff made up of psychologists, docs, welfare manufacturers and impartial criminal and control advisors with out a point in time on aftercare as soon as the display had aired.

‘These measures have been beneath consistent assessment, and we’ve got all the time been proactive in adapting and updating them for long run sequence to replicate the necessities of the display.’

MailOnline understands {that a} psychologist used to be provide in any respect pass judgement on auditions, bootcamp and key levels within the festival and a health care provider used to be available to oversee the screening of individuals for welfare issues and supply make stronger around the sequence.

A devoted welfare manufacturer used to be provide on the player space and within the studios performing because the day by day touch for the individuals and scientific or mental make stronger equipped used to be on a confidential foundation.

Matt additionally spoke about Lucy Spraggan who left The X Factor in 2012 after she used to be raped by means of a resort porter whilst participating at the display.

Matt stated: ‘It stunned me, and it additionally proves how a long way it has come alongside. That wasn’t going down when I used to be on [the show], so if it does come again, and I’m hoping it does not for the contestants’ sake.’

Former X Factor contestant Katie Waissel prior to now stated the display ‘ruined’ her existence.

Throughout the process the making a song festival, Waissel stated she gained acid assault and dying threats, and suffered each panic assaults and suicidal ideas.

The singer stated she has since sought treatment for post-traumatic pressure dysfunction following her time at the display.

She additionally based the OWHL Foundation to assist others who’ve skilled a identical scenario to her. On its web page, the root says it targets to ‘oversee the welfare, human rights and liberty inside the ingenious business sector’.

Looking again thru contracts she signed all the way through her time at the X Factor, she informed the Times: ‘There are such a lot of people who’ve been so trapped and it isn’t honest, there used to be an enormous imbalance in energy.’

Cher Lloyd, who completed fourth within the 2010 version of X Factor, claimed she used to be ‘bought a dream’ when showing at the display at 17, sooner than being exploited.

In a duet shared on TikTok, she sang: ‘How may just I be so naive? They bought me the dream simply to milk me.

‘Said darling darling you’ll be able to move a long way should you shake {that a}** and date a celebrity. And if the file’s starting off we’re going to take the cash.’

Rebecca Ferguson has claimed the song business is hiding ‘terrible human rights abuses’ and that she has continued ‘systematic misogyny and bullying’ right through her profession.

The singer, who got here in 2d position at the fact display’s 7th sequence, stated her enjoy used to be commonplace however claimed deficient behaviour used to be being left out as a result of folks concept ‘you must submit with it’.

She used to be considered one of a chain of stars to offer proof to MPs at the Women and Equalities Committee as a part of a file into misogyny and discrimination in the United Kingdom song scene.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in January, she stated: ‘I’ve needed to maintain misogyny and bullying and in reality terrible remedy my whole profession. As the committee has discovered, it is lovely rife inside the song business.

‘It’s systemic, and I’m in order that happy that the committee has requested the federal government for pressing motion.’