AceShowbiz - Simon Cowell praised "hard working" Little Mix while also denying claims that a huge fall out led to them severing their working relationship with his record label.

It was reported over the weekend, November 10-11, that the British girl band were no longer an act under Cowell's banner after Syco bosses formally ended their professional relationship with the group's management company, Modest.

Sources added that Little Mix, comprised of Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall, and Perrie Edwards, fell out with long-time mentor Cowell over several issues related to their latest album, "LM5", which is due to be released on 16 November.

However, speaking for the first time about the reports, Cowell told The Sun that the fall out was between Syco and Modest - over a songwriting credit on Little Mix track "Woman Like Me".

"It was just embarrassing but, funnily enough, I was more annoyed, again, not about me, but about the fact people who had worked so hard in my company were being misrepresented. Why do artists think they're more important than staff members? They're not. They're the same," he said.

"The irony was the record they were arguing about, which is Woman Like Me, they didn't want to record. This was one of those ironic times that we were having a hit and nobody was happy."

Insisting his decision to walk away from Little Mix "wasn't down to money", Cowell added that he will be meeting up with the group this week "just so they can hear it from me and I can hear it from them".

"Everyone's like, 'There must have been something massive and that's why it collapsed'. Well, I can show you all the correspondence between me and the girls over the years, there's never been an instance when we've fallen out," he said. "As I said in my email to them, I stand by the fact they are the hardest working bunch of girls I've ever worked with. They deserve everything they've got."