Beckett Rex Confirms American Idol Exit: 'It Was My Choice'

American Idol‘s Top 26 mystery has been solved.

Beckett Rex confirmed on social media Tuesday that he is the finalist who abruptly dropped out of the ABC singing competition, which led to Monday’s surprise return of 16-year-old Paige Anne.

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In an Instagram story posted Tuesday morning, Rex, the 19-year-old son of A Clockwork Orange actor Malcolm McDowell, said, “I’m not going to say why I didn’t decide to continue in the competition but what I will say is that it was my choice. I am forever grateful to my American Idol family and I will always look back at the experience with the utmost gratitude and fondness. Please go vote for my friends now as they continue on in the competition.”

Rex did not actually appear in any Idol episodes (producers likely edited out his audition after he made the decision to leave).

Idol host Ryan Seacrest announced the switcheroo during Monday’s broadcast, although he did not reveal which singer Paige Anne was replacing. “Recently, one of the Top 26 decided to bow out of the competition, so we turned to the judges’ first alternate and gave her the life-changing news,” Seacrest told viewers.

“I said goodbye to Idol and everything, then I got invited back — everything happens for a reason,” Anne told this week’s guest mentor Noah Cyrus, who coached Anne through a strong take on her sister’s hit “Wrecking Ball.”

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