JLS 'devastated' by Simon Cowell

JLS were ''devastated'' when Simon Cowell refused to sign them after they finished in second place on 'The X Factor' in 2008.

JLS were "devastated" when Simon Cowell refused to sign them.

The 'Everybody In Love' hitmakers - who finished second to Alexandra Burke on 'The X Factor' in 2008 - admitted while being turned down by the music mogul was hard, they now think it was the "best thing that could have happened".

Aston Merrygold - who is joined n the band by Oritse Williams, Marvin Humes and Jonathan 'JB' Gill - said: "When we didn't win 'The X Factor' we were totally gutted. We thought we were going to win. And in the hour after the result and the show ending, we got together, knocked on Simon's door and begged him to sign us.

"He wouldn't because his policy was only to sign the winner. It was devastating. We had to pick ourselves up and look around the business and make our own deal with a record company. Looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened."

However, the boy band - who have endorsed their own range of condoms - put their success down to running JLS as a "business".

Marvin added in an interview with Live magazine: "Each one of us was hungry and focused to succeed. Yes, we wanted fame, yes we wanted money and success but we always knew it came at a price.

"I think if any of us didn't know exactly what we were doing, we wouldn't be sitting here. This isn't a band, it's a business and each of us works at it 24/7. That's the deal. None of us is stupid, each of us knows it could all end tomorrow so we have to maximise what we have when we have it."