Simon Cowell Talks ‘American Idol Future’ And ‘Depression’ To Oprah
Simon Cowell may have cultivated his Mr Nasty image to great success, but he showed Americans his softer side last night on the Oprah Winfrey show.
The American Idol judge, who is taking a massive gamble by leaving the show to launch his own X Factor Stateside, admitted that he had made some ‘absolutely horrific mistakes’ in the past.
Cowell, 50, admitted that he suffered from depression and was prone to dark moods.
‘I get very, very down,’ Cowell said. ‘Pretty much depression. (But) what I always say is, “You’re taking yourself too seriously, so stop it.”
‘At the same time, you should never put a painted smile on. When you’re feeling down, you’re feeling down.’
Cowell enjoys enormous wealth and success thanks to his creations Britain’s Got Talent, America’s Got Talent and in Britain the X Factor, also said he does feel drained sometimes by the job’s demands.
And, surprisingly, he doesn’t mean the endless auditions.
‘You just become aware that a lot of people depend on you, rely on you, or you’re not giving people the time you should be giving them.
‘It’s almost like a guilt thing, and that does drain me,’ he said.
Often seen as arrogant because of his stinging put-downs to aspiring singers, Cowell admitted that he had a strong ego.
But life hasn’t always been kind. He recalled the time 20 years ago when he lost his job, car and home and had to move back to live with his parents in Britain when a business deal went wrong.
British TV viewers saw him close to tears when he revealed to Piers Morgan on Life Stories how that low-point changed the course of his life.
‘I made some absolutely horrific mistakes. I believed my own ego, believed my own hype, believed my own abilities, and lots of times it came crashing down,’ he said. “I thought I was absolutely untouchable.’
Cowell decided never again to saddle himself with debts and credits the encouragement of his late father with helping him get back on his feet.
The interview with Winfrey was broadcast a week before the May 26 finale of American Idol, which will mark the end of his eight-year association with the most-watched TV show in the United States.
He said he was bored of the show after eight years and wanted to try something new.
Winfrey took great delight in showing a couple of pictures of Simon Cowell in his youth when his hair was a lot longer than his current toilet brush cut.
The most incriminating, taken at some point during the Eighties, saw him wearing a pencil moustache, flowing long dark hair, and wearing a muscle T-shirt with the word ‘Mechanic’ on it.
He said: ‘It’s not a great look, is it? God, I had a moustache.
‘And I wasn’t even a mechanic!’
Cowell also spoke of his hopes for the future and his romance with make-up artist, Mezghan Hussainy, the daughter of an Afghan immigrant.
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