BGT finalist Francine Lewis breaks silence on return to the show – and judge who secretly wanted her to win
FRANCINE Lewis is making a shock return to Britain’s Got Talent – 11 years after reaching the final.
In 2013 Francine, 48, impressed the Britain’s Got Talent judges and viewers at home with her spot-on impressions of celebrities including Katie Price, Cheryl and Stacey Solomon.
She made it all the way to the final, with theatre group Attraction winning the show.
But Francine will make an appearance on the current series, taking part in BGT Reacts – an official spin-off which sees former contestants reacting to the new hopefuls.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, she said: “Basically it’s like Gogglebox. I’ll watch all the auditions before everyone else and we react!
“For instance, this week, this guy came on and he didn’t look like he was going to do singing impressions. He said, ‘I’m a singing teacher’ before suddenly putting his hood up and doing all these impressions.”
Francine continued: “It was like, ‘Oh wow!’ You didn’t expect that. Even when I was on I don’t think people expected me to come out and do impressions, I think they thought I’d sing.
“It’s basically us reacting to those unexpected moments.”
Francine also opened up about her interactions with judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams, who was replaced by Bruno Tonioli last year.
Speaking about the moments following her audition, Francine said: “All the judges came and kissed us.
“Simon went to me, ‘when you see your audition, you’re going to absolutely love it’.
“When I won my semi-final he came off stage to talk to me. I was so excited and he said, ‘I knew you were going to do it. I just knew, you deserve that’. He was always the one who spoke to me.”
She added: “Alesha said to me after the final she was shocked I didn’t win.”
Francine previously opened up about about having regrets over a botched boob job.
Speaking to The Sun she said: “I feel like I’m on a rollercoaster I wish I’d never got on, and now can’t get off.
“Getting breast implants is not a one-off operation. This is something you have to keep doing to maintain them and now I’m stuck in such a horrible situation.”
Francine first had implants in 2003 and it wasn’t until 2020 that she noticed some swelling in her left breast.
She says: “I was s****ing myself about having surgery again, so I left it for years.
“I was about to start filming the Christmas special for BGT when I got this excruciating pain in my left breast. Then all of a sudden it swelled to the point where I looked deformed, like I had a third breast. It was really, really scary.”
After rushing to A&E Francine was told she had an abscess and eventually she had an operation to replace her implants.