BACKSTAGE

Sipping beer backstage, Simon Cowell is in buoyant mood as he reveals he may have a flutter on his group Rak-su winning The X Factor final this weekend.

Even if they don’t triumph, Rak-su seem set for a big future. So as he takes his seat on the judging panel tonight, Simon can reflect on a job well done.

And on a personal level he is happier than ever – with partner Lauren Silverman, 40, and their three-year-old son Eric a reassuring constant by his side.

But music mogul Simon, 58, admits a battle with stress while working extreme hours left him unhappy and struggling to get out of bed.

Back in 2012 the pressure of running his entertainment empire on both sides of the Atlantic was starting to take its toll. He felt like his life had turned into one long night shift as he made phone calls and answered texts at 3am.

Things got so bad he withdrew from filming auditions for the US X Factor to try to get his life back.

Simon says: “I got to a point when you get so tired, you wake up tired and I just thought ‘this isn’t fun any more’.

“I think the worst thing is stress. That’s what makes you ill.

“I try now not to give myself too much stress. The good thing is once you rebalance yourself, you realise how much you still love your job – it’s the best job in the world.”

Slowly but surely Simon turned his life around. He now waxes lyrical about switching his phone off for months at a time.

“If people urgently need to get hold of me they can but it’s been a revelation,” he says on the eve of the final.

In many respects becoming a dad in 2014 helped strengthen his resolve.

While he is still driven and fiercely ambitious, gone are the discussions in the early hours with producers over the quality of an X Factor edit.

Instead he is hands-on with Eric as he grapples with fatherhood for the first time. Simon’s fall down the stairs at his London home in October has brought things into even sharper focus.

“The good thing when that happens and you come out in one piece, you realise there are people in worse

Our Tom with Simon and Rak-su On stretcher after fall in October With Lauren and their toddler son Eric