Britney Spears' apparent walk-off during her first day on the set of The X Factor yesterday was only a short break, a representative for the singer tells Rolling Stone. "There was nothing wrong, she wasn't upset – she just asked if she could take a short break and that's all it was," says the rep.
Sources say that Spears missed just four auditions during the break, which occurred towards the end of the audition round. "It's not uncommon that people take these breaks," adds the rep. In fact, reality show judges have been known to step away from live audition tapings in the past, including X Factor's de facto leader Simon Cowell, who's been chided for missing audition tapings of his show as well as his old TV gig, American Idol.
Spears received the loudest and longest applause upon the judges' arrival at the auditions in Austin, where Demi Lovato also made her debut on the panel. But the singer has also been under close scrutiny since even before her new job was officially announced. After her well-documented breakdown in 2008, Spears has given limited interviews with media and kept her live TV appearances to a minimum, making her debut on X Factor this fall a subject of heavy interest.
