Simon Cowell accidentally punched Caitlyn Vanbeck in the face on The X Factor

Simon Cowell punched one of his final six acts in the face on last night’s episode of The X Factor – by accident, of course.

But the blow Caitlyn Vanbeck was dealt by the 56-year-old judge looked pretty painful, and she later joked she may ‘press charges’ against the music mogul.

The accidental blow happened as Cowell went in for a group hug with the girls who’d won spots on the Judges’ Houses round — but the moment was not shown clearly on the show as the camera cut to Dermot O’Leary.

The clip was only shown on the ITV2 spin-off show The Xtra Factor, presumably placed there to limit any embarrassment.
Simon Cowell punched a contestant in the face on X Factor

Reaching out, Simon let his curled fist land right in Caitlyn’s face after she and the other female finalists in the ‘Girls’ category – Soheila Clifford, 18, Kayleigh Marie Morgan, 19, Gifty Louise, 20, Emily Middlemas, 17, and Olivia Garcia, 16 – rushed to embrace him.

Considering 18-year-old Scot Caitlyn was wearing a baseball cap it’s even more unfortunate that the exposed part of her face took a pounding.

Later on The Xtra Factor a viewer asked Caitlyn whether she would ‘press charges’ against Cowell, and she responded: ‘Yeah, maybe. He’s got a lot of money.’

But Simon’s ‘physical abuse’ isn’t the only thing Caitlyn might want to take him to the cleaner’s about after last night’s ordeal.
caitlyn_vanbeck

After she performed Andra Day’s Rise Up, Simon made an awkward comment about Caitlyn that led viewers to think he was being mean about her weight.

‘I don’t want to give you a chair, I want to give you a sofa!’ he declared, simply to express how much he wanted her to remain on the show – but viewers online responded with comments like ‘She’s not that fat, Simon!’.