X Factor winner Sam Bailey's pregnancy sparks backlash from fans who claim she's 'ruined her career'

The singer came under fire from followers who said her expectancy would scupper her career chances

X-factor winner Sam Bailey's debut single 'Skyscraper' is this year's Christmas number one (Rex Features)

Sam Bailey has come under fire from fans on Twitter who claim she has ruined her career after she announced that she is expecting her third child in the run-up to her UK tour and the release of her debut album.

The X Factor winner revealed the news via the social media site this morning, posting an ultrasound image from her first, 10-week scan alongside the caption: "Hey everyone…… Meet peanut!"

She also detailed, in an interview with The Sun, exactly how she discovered that she was expecting – in a toilet in Asda.

"I went and did it in the toilet while [husband Craig, 40] was getting all the food," the 36-year-old former prison guard perhaps overshared on the subject of taking the test.

"Obviously I'm getting a bit bigger. I didn't want people to think I'd just got fat. That would make me feel insecure again."

She went on to admit that she was worried that the news might anger her management, who had been working on the promotion for her debut record, The Power of Love, on 24 March.

"When I got into the car I was really upset because I thought I'd let everyone at my management and the record label down," she explained.

"But they were really good about it. I was going to go on tour solo at the end of October - but I have managed to move it until January [2015]."

Her mother, Jackie, 62, added to the Mail Online: "Sam was a bit concerned. She's just won the X Factor, doing all these things to promote herself and then all of a sudden she drops the bombshell she's pregnant.

"But as it turns out everybody's so pleased. Everybody within her management are so supportive. It's one of the most natural things in the world and they're really, really delighted. We all are."

A spokesperson from Syco – the Simon Cowell-controlled record label Bailey is signed to – reiterated Bailey's previous statement, telling The Independent: "The label are absolutely thrilled for Sam and 100% behind her."

However, their statement has done little to silence Bailey’s fans on Twitter, who have been vocal about the damage they think her decision to have a third child will have on her career:

Bailey’s news comes just months after she revealed that she had suffered a miscarriage four years ago while she was performing on stage in front of a live audience.

"I didn't know what was happening and I was scared to death that something was very wrong," she told Now magazine.

"When I was rushed to hospital, all I could think about was my unborn baby. When I got to the hospital, doctors did lots of tests and told me they thought there was a possibility I was actually pregnant with twins and that maybe I'd lost one of the twins.

"Obviously at the time I believed I was only having one baby, so I was devastated."

Bailey was, however, able to give birth to a healthy son, Tommy, in the wake of the news. She is also the mother of Brooke, eight.

The star won the 2013 series of The X Factor after beating 17-year-old Nicholas McDonald into second place.

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