EXCLUSIVE: KATE'S £500,000 XTRA PAY
EXCLUSIVE TV beauty's mega deal to stay
By Melanie Swan
X FACTOR beauty Kate Thornton has clinched a bumper £500,000 deal to stay on the show.
ITV chiefs were desperate not to lose the blonde presenter, who is a great hit with viewers.
Kate, 33, reckoned she was worth a big pay boost after judges Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh won £1.5mil-lion contracts to appear in a new series.
A source told The People: "Kate was in a good position to negotiate. The show wouldn't be the same without her - it would be like Big Brother without Davina McCall. She's been in The X Factor from the start.
"When Kate saw the judges had been given such huge pay rises she felt it was unfair and unrealistic to expect her to come back on the same money.
"She's really popular with the audience and the judges. ITV knew they couldn't lose her." Kate will front eight nights of Celebrity X Factor in May and a series of the normal show later in the year. The source said: "Now her contract is finalised she can't wait to start. It's all she's been talking about."
The People revealed two weeks ago how music mogul Walsh refused to take part in this year's series unless he got the same mega deal as fellow judge Sharon.
Kate's bonanza makes her one of TV's highest paid female presenters - though not in the same league as Davina, who got £1million for her struggling peak-time BBC chat show. Weakest Link star Anne Robinson is telly's top woman earner on £2million a year. Curvy Kate has been dating former Underworld DJ Darren Emerson since last year. He was part of the dance band when it reached No1 with Born Slippy.
Kate, who used to edit pop magazine Smash Hits, also presented the Brit Awards last year.
People
