Dannii Minogue had to jump behind a security guard after the family of a contestant she canned on the British TV talent show The X Factor tried to corner her.
The Aussie warbler had been judging performers in a round of auditions for The X Factor when she used her casing vote to stop a male singer from going through to the next round.
The contestant was not only incensed but so was his family who confronted Minogue and then tried to corner her.
The 36-year-old said she was petrified, and only returned to set after fellow judge Simon Cowell agreed to lend her his hefty bodyguard Tony.
“I hid near him, If I feel frightened, I’ll always run to him. Tony’s a friendly giant but I wouldn’t mess with him,” said Minogue.
A well-placed source on the show told a Scottish newspaper Network chiefs were upping security as a "precaution".
"Dannii was really shaken by the whole experience, so it was decided to have a few more heavies on set just in case something as traumatic happened again," a source told the Record.
"Producers appreciate things get heated on occasion, but they never anticipated things would kick-off quite as much.
"It was quite eye-opening to say the least for (fellow judge) Cheryl Cole, who had never seen a confrontation quite like that on the show before."
"She gave Dannii a kiss and a cuddle afterwards to make sure she was OK, but was trembling quite a lot herself."
