Simon Cowell: I was so tired I nearly walked away from it all
IT’S the kind of touching personal story that viewers of his hit TV shows The X Factor and Britain’s s Got Talent will be all too o familiar with.
In a frank, exclusive interrview with today’s Event t magazine, Simon Cowell ll admits he was on the brink k of walking away from his is showbiz empire – until he was saved by his young son. n
‘I was getting close to that at point. There was so much to deal with and I was exhausted,’ d,’ he tells Piers Morgan in the interview. ‘I’d wake up feeling ing tired, which is the worst feeleeling in the world.’
The t urning point came l ast October, when low blood pressure and stress brought on by his gruelling schedule – including more than 1,000 meetings a year – left him in hospital after he fell down the stairs at his London home.
In response, Cowell, who previously estimated his level of contentment at just five out of ten, moved to a beachside home in Malibu in California, ditched his mobile phone, gave up Twitter and stopped watching TV news.
‘ I don’t talk about politics or religion any more; not at home, not on TV, not to you, not to anybody. It’s not worth it,’ he says.
But he gives most credit for his transformed outlook on life to his son, four-year-old Eric. ‘The hap- piness level has definitely gone up to a nine… My life is very different since he came along,’ he says.
‘ It was my 59th birthday last week and it started with me taking Eric out cycling, with him dressed as an alien. Then I bought him yogurt, watched him play in his hamster wheel on the grass, we had a swim and I taught him how to ride a quad bike.’
While Cowell is evasive about any plans to marry Eric’s mother, Lauren Silverman, who was previously married to one of his friends, he does admit that his devotion to Eric reached its limit at changing nappies.
‘ All I’ve ever done is the fun things with him. We talk a lot, he’s like my best friend,’ he says.