Tulisa nervous working with Gary Barlow

Tulisa Contostavlos was ''nervous'' about working with Gary Barlow in case she offended him.

The 'Young' singer - who joined the Take That frontman as a judge on 'The X Factor' last year - says that she tried to tone down her swearing so that she wouldn't upset the star.

She said: ''It's not that he's too serious - he's got a wicked sense of humour, but it's all quite underplayed. At first I was nervous with Gary. I'm loud and cheeky, I've been known for my bad language. You know when you try not to swear around some people? I was like that. Or I'd refrain from telling certain jokes around him.

''To be honest, I was probably like that in general. I was terrified. Remember, I came in replacing Cheryl Cole, the nation's sweetheart. I was never going to be anybody's sweetheart.''

The former N-Dubz singer - who mentored the winning girl band, Little Mix, on last year's series - has also revealed she was scared that viewers wouldn't like her and she would ruin the popularity of the show.

She told the Daily Mail's Weekend magazine: ''I knew 60 per cent of the people watching would hate N-Dubz, and the other 40 per cent wouldn't know who the hell I was. Deciding how to behave myself was quite difficult. I probably sugar-coated myself, I didn't want people thinking, 'I don't like 'The X Factor' anymore because of Tulisa.' ''