Rylan Clark has backed the embattled James Arthur, dismissing suggestion that he is homophobic.

The X Factor 2012 winner landed himself in hot water recently by including gay slurs in a rap diss.

Negative feedback from the public led to the singer being struck off work by a doctor for "exhaustion".

Arthur publicly apologised for his mistakes whilst performing on the X Factor on Sunday (December 1) and speaking to This Morning, his friend Rylan Clark defended him amid the fury. He said:

"James has had a rough couple of weeks and I'm going to say my piece on this - James is one of my best friends and I can hand on heart sit here and say he's not homophobic. I shared a bed with the boy for ten weeks! I love him to bits.

"He's had a really, really tough few months without going into detail and he made a stupid mistake - he's a stupid boy. But that's what he did, he made a stupid mistake."