X Factor co-host Olly Murs got into a bit of a pickle while announcing Sunday night’s double elimination result, but exiting Monica Michael says she knew she was going.

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Murs announced that Monica was going home after the judges’ vote, when the split vote on the panel actually meant it needed to go to Deadlock. The return to the public vote didn’t change the result, though, seeing Monica following Max Stone out of the competition in the show’s third double elimination.

“It was a little bit of a shambles,” Monica admitted to RadioTimes.com. “I think everyone was a little bit nervous about the reaction to what had happened and upset about the mess up and everything. It was cool. It wasn’t that bad.

“Everyone makes mistakes. It’s live television,” she added after Murs took to Twitter to apologise for the mistake. “I kind of knew I was going home from Friday. When I was in the bottom three I knew I was going home 100% and then he did the whole Deadlock thing – whatever. I knew I was going home the day before. It wasn’t really a shock to me.”

In light of the recent Paris attacks, Monica’s original song choice was changed from Nancy Sinatra's Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) to What Is Love? by Haddaway, which she’d performed during this year’s Six Chair Challenge.

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“Because my song changed last minute – which is understandable and I completely agree with them – but that performance, that song made me the strongest contender of that weekend. I went from being one of the strongest contenders to being the weakest. I knew that, I’m not oblivious to those things. I just knew it was game over.”

Monica admitted she was keen to show the “real Monica”, including a live rap, after not feeling like herself last Saturday night.

“I didn’t have a great week the week before, I’d done something I didn’t really want to do, I was in a dress I felt very uncomfortable in,” Monica explained of her twist on Beyoncé track Crazy in Love. “I really wasn’t happy with the song and I aired that out. But it was just so early on. I didn’t want to rock the boat and put my foot down. Even though Simon was like, ‘Monica, you can’t let this happen’. I just think, ‘OK, I don’t want to come onto your show and look like I’m running things.' There’s a fine line between that.

“I don’t feel sorry for myself, but it’s been a battle. It hasn’t been an easy ride. I’ve been out of my comfort zone a lot. It got to the point where it was like I don’t know if I can be out of my comfort zone much longer anyway, so it was bittersweet that I left."

As for what's next, Monica will now be getting into the studio, recording her own music and putting an album out. And that will (hurrah!) include recording Pretty Little Sister.

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The X Factor continues Saturday and Sunday at 8:00pm on ITV

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