Simon Cowell has opened up about the death of mother, Julie, who passed away at the age of 89 in July. The X Factor judge revealed that he was thinking of her while watching an emotional performance of Labrinth’s ‘Jealous’ from Josh Daniels recently.
Speaking to Loose Women’s Ruth Langsford and Jane Moore, Cowell spoke about the tearful audition, saying: «… it was quite near when it all happened and I think it was the last audition and I wasn’t really expecting what happened.» He added: «… and of course the lyric of the song and it was quite difficult because I thought, ‘God this is going to be really hard to sit through this.’ «But then you’ve got to think of [Josh] and it’s his moment but yes it was very emotional.» Speaking about his mother, Simon said: «She was a huge fan of the show, she loved the show,….
Simon Phillip Cowell was born on 7 October 1959[7][8] in Lambeth, London, and raised in Elstree, Hertfordshire. His mother, Julie Brett (née Josie Dalglish, 1925–2015),[9] was a ballet dancer and socialite, and his father, Eric Selig Phillip Cowell (1918–1999), was an estate agent, property developer, and music industry executive.[10] Cowell’s father was from a mostly Jewish family (his own mother was born in Poland),[11] though he did not discuss his ancestry with his children. Cowell’s mother was from a Christian background.[11][12] He has a younger brother, Nicholas Cowell; three half brothers, John, Tony, and Michael Cowell; and a half sister, June Cowell.[13] Cowell attended Radlett Preparatory School, Licensed Victuallers’ School in Ascot for one year,
[14] and the private Dover College, as did his brother, but left after taking GCE O levels. He passed English Language and Literature and then attended Windsor Technical College, where he gained another GCE in Sociology.[15] Cowell took a few menial jobs—including, according to his brother Tony,[16] working as a runner on Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror film The Shining—but did not get along well with colleagues and bosses, until his father, who was an executive at EMI Music Publishing, managed to get him a job in the mail room. However, after failing to get a promotion, he left to try out other jobs before returning to EMI.[17]
Following the success of the Idol and X Factor franchises, Cowell, his company Syco, and its business partners developed a talent show format open to performers of any kind, not only singers, but also dancers, instrumentalists, magicians, comedians, novelty acts, and so on. The origins of the Got Talent format can be traced to the British talent shows Opportunity Knocks (on screen from 1956, with the winner using the now-standard method of a telephone vote) and New Faces.[80] Immensely popular with weekly audiences of 20 million, Opportunity Knocks showcased singers, dancers and comedians in addition to non standard performers such as acrobats, animal acts and novelty acts.[80] Cowell states, «I was a fan of variety shows Opportunity Knocks and New Faces, and to be able to update that tradition, really was a buzz».[40] Cowell is the executive producer of America’s Got Talent,[81] which debuted in June 2006, along with Fremantle producers of the Idol series. The show was a huge success for NBC, drawing around 12 million viewers a week and beating So You Think You Can Dance on Fox (produced by rival and Idol creator Simon Fuller). Britain’s Got Talent debuted on ITV in June 2007.[82] Cowell appeared as a judge alongside Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. The show was a ratings success, and second and third seasons followed in 2008 and 2009. The third series featured a publicity coup when Susan Boyle made a global media impact comparable to that of any previous talent show series winner with her regional audition performance.[82][83] In December 2019, Cowell signed a five-year deal with ITV ensuring Britain’s Got Talent will stay on the channel until 2024.[84]