In addition to his extensive television work, becoming for a time the face of America’s Got Talent, judge Simon Cowell is a proud father of one a son named Eric. It is his son that Cowell credits with saving him from a downward spiral, becoming a port in a storm when Cowell was feeling his lowest.
Cowell has been with his partner Lauren Silverman since 2013; the couple confirmed their engagement in January 2022. The couple welcomed Eric on February 14, 2014. But before he was even in their lives, he managed to alter the course of Cowell’s life for the better.
Simon Cowell was in a bad place ten years ago
Speaking with The Diary Of A CEO podcast, Cowell reflected on a particularly low point in his life that hit him a decade ago. “I think particularly when I lost my mum, I was on a downward spiral at that point,” noted Cowell, who categorized that as when he “reached the point where nothing mattered.”
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“I lost everyone, you know,” he went on. “I’ve lost my parents. It’s finality now. What I said about the material things I’ve got, everything just meant nothing at that point.” Cowell’s mother was Julie Brett, née Josie Dalglish, born in 1925; she was a ballet dancer and socialite. His father, Eric Selig Phillip Cowell, born in 1918, was a music industry executive who died in 1999. Julie passed away in 2015.
He continued, “It was almost like because of the loss I’d had, I’ve got to find something else to fill it. And it was ‘I’m just going to be a ridiculous workaholic,’ and I was very successful but I wasn’t happy, I really, really wasn’t happy.” Then came a reminder that he had a purpose.
Simon Cowell says his son helped get him out of his downward spiral, even before being born
The momentum of this downward spiral seemed without end for Cowell, until a voice broke through the despair.
“Are you sitting down?” she asked after calling him up on the phone. Then, she told Cowell that she was pregnant. “And yes it did absolutely change,” said Cowell, “it changed everything in my life. It made me happy again.”
Looking back, Cowell felt, “I really, really had reached the point where nothing mattered. Even to the point that I almost can’t remember everything from that period.” Eric becoming an impending bright spot in their lives “without question” saved Cowell, the Britain’s Got Talent judge said.
Now, father and son are embarking on another formative journey. In 2020, Cowell announced that he and his son would be penning a seven-part book series called Wishfits.
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