London, Feb 1 : has landed `Girls Aloud' bandmate Nadine Coyle in hot water after making an outrageous claim that she owns a tiger fur coat.

The X Factor judge made the announcement in an interview by an 11-year-old fan in a magazine, reports the Daily Star.

When the girl asked band members about their favourite item of designer clothing, Nadine, 23, launched into a bizarre anecdote about a 5,000-pound worth "white and black tiger" coat she keeps at home.

And Cheryl, 25, enraged animal rights campaigners by insisting: "It's real fur."

Here's how the conversation went:

Nadine: "I was so stupid one time, I bought this coat. I thought it was 500 pounds but they rang it up and it was five grand! I bought it. I've still got it sitting in my house."

Cheryl: "It must be fur, is it fur?"

Nadine: "It's fur."

Cheryl: "There you go, it's real fur."

Nadine: "It's like, er, tiger, like a white and black tiger."

Cheryl: "Tiger? Nadine, no!"

Nadine: "It's not fur, it's like hair."

Cheryl: "It's got to be fur at that price."

A spokesman for the band insisted Cheryl was only joking.

He said: "You'll see it's Cheryl that said it was real fur - Nadine didn't know what it was made of. Nadine is in America now, so I can't ask her about the coat but I doubt she knows what it is made of." (ANI)