Mel B admits she can be a bad-ass with her boys on The X Factor

We’ll be honest with you – if we auditioned for The X Factor, got through to Judges’ Houses, then found out we had Mel B as a mentor, we’d been pretty darn terrified.

And it looks like her Boys category have reason to be scared because, erm, Scary Spice has admitted she can be a “bad-ass”, and she’s not there to mother them.

And seeing as a fair amount of them have probably had a crush on her at some point in their lives, we guess that’s not such a bad thing…

"Boys can do whatever they want, they are boys," Mel told The Mirror. "As long as they are respectful about it and whoever they are with, who am I to say anything? I'm not their mother. They are responsible for themselves.

"You show up to work and you prepare yourself. What you do in your personal life is up to you, as long as it doesn't affect your work."

However, the mum-of-three promised to be there for her category if and when they want to open up.

"I can be a hard-ass, a bad-ass, and I can be very emotional and very connected," she explained. "I'm not working with girls - I expect them to be emotional and open up - but boys are boys. You can't force a boy to tell you how he's feeling. If they want to tell me, they can tell me."

The X Factor’s Judges Houses starts tonight on ITV at 9pm.