Got your X Factor back, Simon?
Cowell’s happy family stroll, weeks after e-bike accident that nearly crippled him
THERE were fears he would never walk again and talk of a long road to recovery.
But ten weeks after breaking his back in an electric bike crash, Simon Cowell enjoyed a Sunday afternoon stroll in the Los Angeles sunshine.
In his first public appearance since the accident in August, the 61-year-old X Factor creator looked lean, tanned and surprisingly fit as he was joined by his partner Lauren Silverman and their son Eric, six.
It has led to increased speculation that he might marry his 43year-old girlfriend of seven years.
Cowell, who has been recuperating at his £19million Malibu mansion, needed a six-and-a-half-hour operation following the crash.
He was unable to return to work on the final of America’s Got Talent last month and the Britain’s Got Talent live shows this month, leaving friends to fear his recovery was taking longer than first hoped.
But during his weekend appearance Cowell, wearing T-shirt, shorts and a facemask, seemed well on the mend.
One source said the music mogul had endured ‘six weeks of agony’ as he was nursed through recuperation, adding: ‘He is building up his strength but the recovery is taking longer than we hoped.
‘It was a very serious injury and they didn’t fully appreciate that at first. There was initial euphoria that he was all right, when he felt that he had come through it by a miracle. Then came the pain. By early September, it was obvious that he wasn’t going to be ready to physically p travel at all for work.
‘He was on high- strength painkillers but he isn’t any more. He also doesn’t have a live-in nurse any more.’
Some in Cowell’s circle suggest his h brush with paralysis – perhaps death d – may even jolt him into proposing to Miss Silverman.
They have never spent so much time together as a family as in recent months – a result of the coronavirus pandemic and then his accident – and she is increasingly involved in his work. One friend says of the prospect of Cowell marrying: ‘Never say never.’
Cowell is already a changed man since becoming a father. He revealed last Christmas how he has lost four stone as a result of overhauling his diet and fitness regime.
He has cut out red meat and drastically reduced his sugar intake.
He decided to act after falling down stairs at his London home in 2017. He blamed his injuries on living ‘like a vampire’ by working through the night.
‘It was a very serious injury’