Rylan Clark flees Rob Rinder's sweet surprise as he opens up about behind-the-scenes 'trauma' from competing on X Factor
They’ve travelled across Venice, Florence and Rome, but Rylan Clark and Rob Rinder’s epic Grand Tour has come to an end.
The pair grew close over the series, bonding over art, music and good food. But in the final episode of the travel series, Rob’s kind gesture to Rylan backfired.
Rob surprised Rylan with the chance to sing with an opera concerto, but the presenter refuses and flees the room. As Rob chased after him, Rylan admitted the experience brought back unpleasant memories from his time on the X Factor.
He said: 'Every week I was thrown into the lion's den doing stuff that I didn't know.”
As Rob tried to comfort Rylan, he continued to say: “It's like an internal thing now, when you've been through that experience. Once you've been through that, when someone goes, ''Go on, just do it'', it makes me go, ''I can't, I can't just go and do it'.
''I feel like I've worked so hard to move away from that 'f*****g idiot'' that I was perceived as, that character who couldn't sing. That can f**k someone up majorly.”
Rylan competed on the X Factor in 2012 where he made it all the way through to the quarter final, and he had a completely different look back then with bleach blonde hair.
Continuing to talk about his time on the talent show, Rylan later added: “My job on X Factor wasn't to be the singer, so I played that role. My job was to be the joke act, the one everyone would speak about and be on the front page of the paper every day.
“If I've learned anything on this Grand Tour, it is that there's more to me than that.
“I'm not thick, I've got more to give than just being that idiot on the telly with the shiny teeth.”
Both Rylan and Rob have recently split from their husbands and spoke about their heartbreak during the show.
Rob tearfully opened up about his divorce from Seth Cummings: “I was once so in love when I was in my early twenties, but it wasn't reciprocated. And it never has been.”
Rylan comforted his co-star and said: “Do you know what, Rob? We're here once, we've been through quite a lot of stuff.
'What's it taught us? Nothing's forever unless it's right.”
