TWO years ago Simon Cowell lost an impressive 3st by overhauling his diet and cycling on his beloved — but dangerous — E-bikes, of which he has a haul of 15 at his Californian mansion.
Today he looks skinnier than I’ve ever seen him and his fiancee Lauren Silverman reckons he now weighs less than her.
So, how’s he done it? Surely a gastric band, like his manager and close friend Jonathan Shalit? “No, I haven’t had a gastric band,” Simon sighs.
What about a gastric bypass?
“No, nor one of them.”
I ask him to promise on my life — which he does, a little too readily. “I would tell you if I did!” he adds.
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“Look, I will tell you what I did. I did see a doctor in Harley Street. He specialises in a certain kind of diet.
“He did my blood work and pee and all the rest of it, and a month later the results came in and his words were, ‘You have the worst diet out of all the clients I have ever seen in my life — you have a schoolboy’s diet from the 1960s.’
“It was just pies. So he sent me a list of things I can’t eat, and that included red meat, dairy, sugar and gluten. And I pretty much stuck to it.”
So, when was the last time Simon ate a pie? “Christ knows,” he says. “A long time ago. Even pizza, the hardest thing for me to give up, I can now have a tiny, tiny amount and that’s enough.”
Which sounds suspiciously like the work of a gastric band.
“No! How much would you like to bet? Wouldn’t there be scars?”
So what’s his typical daily diet?
For breakfast, it is a “green smoothie” and no-sugar Alpen, with tea and oat milk. Lunch is grilled tomatoes and some soup.
Often he will go out for dinner and not eat. Which is the sort of thing that makes Victoria Beckham sound like a glutton.
“I’m not a big eater,” he insists. “I don’t enjoy it that much. I’d rather have a beer than eat, any day of the week.
“Sometimes when we are going out for dinner because I know I’m going to hate the food, I have baked beans on toast before I go, then eat nothing.
“When you go to one of these ghastly big parties, or weddings, where the food is horrific, I just can’t deal with that.”
There are two things nobody wants to happen when interviewing Simon Cowell.
1) He suggests going for a quick spin on his electric bike. 2) Your front tooth falls out.
Yet it came to pass that I found myself — tooth hanging by a thread (more on this later) — whizzing around the very courtyard where Simon broke his back and nearly died in 2020.
“Let’s just pop you up a couple of gears,” he says casually, as I am rocketed forward on something the size of a small horse. “You’ll be absolutely fine.”
He did my blood work and pee and all the rest of it, and a month later the results came in and his words were, ‘You have the worst diet out of all the clients I have ever seen in my life — you have a schoolboy’s diet from the 1960s.’
Simon is now nearly two years on from his horrific E-bike crash which saw him require six hours of spine-saving surgery.
And in the wake of a more recent smash two months ago that left him with a broken arm, he still refuses a helmet.
But it is clear the Britain’s Got Talent star was badly shaken by the original accident.
So much so that Simon, 62, recently proposed to long-term girlfriend Lauren Silverman, with whom he has eight-year-old son Eric.
Stunning US socialite Lauren, 43, and Simon are hosting me for a chat in the grounds of their Malibu mansion, as he opens up for the first time about the couple’s forthcoming wedding.
He says: “I’ve kind of felt myself engaged for a long time, if I’m really being honest with you. Lockdown and Covid was probably make or break for many relationships.
“We were in the same house for over a year and I thought, ‘Well, actually, we get on really, really well’.
“And for Eric, as he gets older, he will be asked more and more about his parents, and I thought it was the right thing to do for him.
“I also just couldn’t see myself ever dating anyone again. The idea of going out on a first date now is too weird.
“My mum and dad had an amazing marriage and I used to call them best friends, and I think that’s a big part of it.
“You’ve gotta like each other, not just love each other. We like the same things, we laugh a lot, we always have stuff to say to each other.
“Look, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So for all those different reasons, it just felt like the right thing to do.”
Simon, previously the eternal bachelor, with a famous “harem” of ex-girlfriends, has never been married before. In fact, he previously slammed marriage as an “outdated and shackling institution”.
But since falling in love with Lauren, and following the birth of Eric, he is a changed man.
So much so that TV’s one-time Mr Nasty is even busy planning the big day.
Lauren is having lunch, with Eric alongside her, at Simon’s ocean-facing pool as we chat. Her engagement ring is the size of Ayers Rock. It’s HUGE.
She smiles politely when I ask if it’s from Claire’s (it’s not).
“I’m not romantic, obviously,” Simon says, needlessly. “I didn’t get down on one knee. Was I nervous? No!
“I mean, I didn’t think she’d say no — you only get nervous if you think they’re gonna go, ‘No’, don’t you?
“We’d sort of discussed rings, and I had an idea of the sort of thing she’d like.
“I am planning it all, otherwise I know what will happen — there will be 600 people and it’ll get out of control, like my 50th birthday party.
“No one knows when it’s going to be — that’ll be a surprise, even for Lauren.
“But I don’t want to have one of these ghastly wedding planners and all the arguments that happen, and who you do invite and who you don’t invite. The whole thing just seems like too much hassle.”
That’s the spirit, Simon.
Three years off retirement age, the star has absolutely no desire to pack it all in — contrary to a report earlier this week.
He is returning to our screens for a new series of Britain’s Got Talent next Saturday alongside fellow judges Amanda Holden, David Walliams and Alesha Dixon.
No one knows when it’s going to be — that’ll be a surprise, even for Lauren. But I don’t want to have one of these ghastly wedding planners and all the arguments that happen, and who you do invite and who you don’t invite. The whole thing just seems like too much hassle.”
He reckons the latest edition of the show — now in its 15th year after spawning acts including singers Paul Potts and Susan Boyle, dance troupe Diversity and dog trick sensation Ashleigh and Pudsey — is the most fun yet.
“It felt almost like the very first year we made the show,” he says with a smile.
“It felt new again, rather than a routine, because it had started to fall a little bit into that. It’s a great show, it’s fun and it makes you feel good.”
He adds: “As long as you’re fit, your brain is still good, it’s not boring and you’ve still got good ideas, why retire? If I am going to drop dead, I’d like to do it on stage.”
On the cheery topic of death, astonishingly Simon admits he only recently made a will for the very first time.
He will leave a “substantial amount” — thought to be £20million — to animal charities including canine causes the Dogs Trust, K9 in Barbados, and London’s Battersea Dogs Home.
He says: “The will covers everything I care about — the charities I support. Look, I hadn’t made a will until recently as I never thought I was going to die. At one point, as you know, I was thinking about being frozen, until I realised they actually chop your head off.
“So when I realised I was just going to be a floating head, it was like, ‘Well, that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun’. So that idea went out the window.
“Finally, I realised I was gonna die and that I had made absolutely no provisions whatsoever.” He adds of the will: “It was one of the most depressing things I’ve ever done, and one of the hardest.
“Unfortunately, you have to — and that day, when it comes, is like, ‘Christ, I’ve now got to sit and talk about my death for the next few hours’. It was dreadful. But the fact that I’ve done it now has given me peace of mind.”
At this point, things take a turn for the worse. As Simon reaches to eat half a carrot I bite into a date-and-walnut ball and my loose front tooth flies out.
It lands on the canapé table before us. We both freeze. Me in horror, him in mild disgust.
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Happily, Simon is no stranger to dental implants and after explaining how he recently lost half a tooth while chomping on some peanut brittle, he gallantly fetches a spare tube of tooth adhesive Fixodent Plus.
