Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden has stuck up for herself, after making headlines for swearing during Monday night’s live show.

Amanda had been invited to participate in an unsettling magic performance by illusionist act The Haunting, but wound up dropping a pre-watershed F-bomb during a particularly scary moment.

Speaking about her explicit slip of the tongue in an interview with The Sun, she joked: “It always bloody happens to me.

“They never get Alesha [Dixon] up, she’d always want to know how it all works, like Miss Marple, where I’m like, ‘Yeah I’ll get up’. And it’s normally me who falls arse over tit or swears.”

A defiant Amanda continued: “No, I’ve not learnt my lesson, I’ve not washed my mouth out with soap either. I would defy anyone not to have sworn, they would have said worse than I did.”

However, Amanda did admit that she feared she’d get a telling off for the incident.

She added: “There were only 200 complaints to Ofcom – nowhere near my record – but I did go into panic mode afterwards. I chased Simon into his dressing room and said, ‘You’re not going to fire me, are you?’ And he replied, ‘Don’t be fucking ridiculous’.

“I said, ‘You know Simon, the world has gone mad now’. It was unplanned and I didn’t mean it in any bad way, but there is so much political correctness now and so much stuff flying round that you just don’t know. I am lucky to have survived this long in this climate.”

Just two spots remain in this year’s BGT live final, which will be filled in the last of this year’s live shows.

Among those battling it out for a space will be comedian Barbara Nice, dance group Fabulous Sisters and tambourinist Gonzo.

BGT continues on ITV tonight (31 May) at 7.30pm.