The 57-year-old head judge stirred up the competition and left the family group Descendance – made up of Hayley Norton and Debye Gaskin – in tears.
X Factor judge Simon had decided that Hayley should continue in the show alone, without her mother.
As a group they were sent home, but the judging panel were willing to allow them another go if they split up.
Taking a moment backstage after it all became too much, Hayley’s mother seemed reluctant to allow her daughter to continue on her own.
Eventually returning to the stage, she said: “She’s my baby star, that’s what I called her when I was born, she’s going to go forward. I would have always done it, it’s just a hard one to swallow.”
Only 124 of the thousands of initial entries made it through to Bootcamp, and even fewer earned the chance to perform at the arena.
The emotional heights of the competition even spread to the judges themselves as Nicole Scherzinger later struggled to get her words out after watching teenager Shanaya Atkinson-Jones sing Luther Vandross’ Dance With My Father in tribute to her adopted parents.
Leaving Nicole in tears, she gushed: “I just wanted to say thank you for that. I feel like… I don’t know if I’m the only emotional one here?
“I’m crying like a baby. Like, you always give such an honest performance and I feel like whenever you sing you just take us somewhere else and you’re just so truthful. You’re just the real thing!”
Simon Cowell then turned to his co-judge and asked: “Why are you crying?”
Wiping away her tears, Nicole explained: “I just… I don’t know? Every time she sings it’s like you go through it with her. She sings the truth. There is nothing contrived. I just… I love her.”
The X Factor continues tomorrow on ITV at 7.30pm.
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