Will.i.am's international lifestyle is apparantly causing The Voice contestants to lose out on valuable coaching time.

The Black Eyed Peas' star's frequent trips from the show's base in the UK to the US means that all competitors on the show are affected because of BBC rules. The television network bosses say the other coaches can mentor their acts ONLY when Will.i.am sees his, to ensure fairness. His acts told last week how they saw him for just two half-hour sessions in the run-up to the opening live episode.

Yesterday, coach Danny O'Donoghue's acts revealed how their time with the script frontman had been limited by the new ruling.

"If Will is out of the country, we aren't seeing Danny. All the mentors have to do equal amounts," contestant Bo Bruce told The Sun.

"We all get the same amount of time. The coaches fit it round their schedules. We only started doing our songs on Monday -- we found out what they were at the same time as the other teams but they started on them and we were in the dark on what we were doing with them," Max Milner said.