Simon Cowell shared his fears about his finances despite being thought of as one of the wealthiest men in showbiz thanks to his illustrious career in the music industry.
He admitted that he hasn’t made ‘anywhere near as much money’ as people think, as told the How To Fail podcast: ‘I always worry about money’.
The Britain’s Got Talent boss, 65, said he worries because the world is ‘so precarious’ he never feels relaxed about how much money he has.
The father of one recalled how during the early days of the Covid pandemic he pushed out all of his projects early over fears that they would be halted.
He said: ‘I always worry about money because I think you have to in a way. You think about Covid as an example.
‘I remember reading it for the first time on a website, and I don’t read a lot of stuff on social media, but I’d heard about it, so I was curious.
Simon Cowell has shared his fears about his finances despite being thought of as one of the wealthiest men in showbiz thanks to his illustrious career in the music industry
Simon admitted that he hasn’t made ‘anywhere near as much money’ as people think he has as he told the How To Fail podcast: ‘I always worry about money’ (pictured with partner Lauren Silverman and their son Eric)
‘Second day, the story got bigger to a point where I actually phoned my partner and I said “I don’t like the look of this, I have a horrible feeling it’s going to be like that movie Contagion, and I think we need to get all of our shows into production around the world quicker this year”. And we did.
‘And when it happened it was obviously worse than I could have imagined,
‘When you think about that, the wars, and everything else, the instability, what is safe? Is it gold, cash, stocks. I don’t think anything’s safe any longer. I guess your house.
‘Someone did actually say to me once “live in your money”. And it was really good advice, i.e, enjoy it, and be happy with it, but understand that the world is precarious.’
Simon denied he’s worth anywhere near the £500 million figure that’s been reported. He said: ‘Oh God, it’s not that. I’m not even close to that. I’m being serious. I’m not.
‘I’ve made a lot, I’m not going to lie. I’ve made a bit of money, yes, but not that much, no.’
He said he’d even recently had to ask friends if they would help him to start on a project he wanted to work on because he didn’t have enough money.
He said: ‘My friends have been great. I did something recently where I just didn’t have the money to pay people to help me.
The Britain’s Got Talent boss, 65, said he worries because the world is ‘so precarious’ he never feels relaxed about how much money he has (pictured April 2025)
While his ITV talent show is still a raging success attracting around five million viewers each episode, Simon has wound down some of his other projects (pictured Simon centre)
‘So I seriously had to say to about 20 people “I’m making something and I really don’t have any money, but would you help me?”
‘And they all said “yes”. And that was the most incredible thing.’
However despite opening up about his money fears, Simon said he would still classify himself as ‘rich’ when asked, he said: ‘Probably yes’.
Simon said: ‘I’ve definitely got enough. I don’t need any more. I don’t yearn for what I thought I wanted a few years ago because when I was a kid I had no idea of anything like yachts, and the Caribbean, or private planes.
‘So when the first time – early 40s it must have been – I sort of came across this world and saw it, I’m like “What? That is your own boat?” It was like a cruise ship.
‘So there was a point where I thought “Well maybe I haven’t done as well as I thought, maybe that’s what I want”.
‘And I did start to kind of mix with some of those people for a couple of years. And I’m going to be honest, I hated it.
‘I didn’t like the people. I thought they were obnoxious, I thought they were snobby, I think a lot of those people thought they were better than other people because they had money – which is ridiculous when you think about it.
Simon’s slow wind down has come in recent years as he bids to focus more on his partner Lauren Silverman, with whom he shares son Eric, 11 (pictured 2024)
‘So it was a kind of a good thing that it happened because I remember saying to Lauren”Do we actually know anyone who’s rich, I mean super rich, and happy?” She went “No”. I went “Nor me”.
‘So we’re fine. We’re doing alright but we don’t need any more.’
Simon downsized his company SyCo to ‘focus on family’ and says he no longer feels the need to make as much money, claiming that nobody he knows who is ‘super rich’ is happy.
While his ITV talent show is still a raging success attracting around five million viewers each episode, Simon has wound down some of his other projects.
The X Factor ran for 14 years, from 2004 to 2018, but Simon decided to call it quits on the long-running show due to declining viewing figures and a belief that online platforms like YouTube were taking over the need for talent shows.
The musical mogul had excitedly announced a bid to find the next big boyband – claiming there hadn’t been one as big as 1D since – and launched a Netflix series, The Midas Touch.
But Simon’s latest project was scrapped, seemingly due to lack of interest when he failed to get enough talent auditioning to become ‘the next One Direction’.
Simon’s slow wind down has come in recent years as he bids to focus more on his partner Lauren Silverman, with whom he shares son Eric, 11.
The TV personality also stepped away from the limelight in August 2020 when he broke his back during an E-bike accident while testing it at his Malibu home.
He underwent six hours of surgery and claimed at a later date that it was ‘much worse than people first thought’.
He suffered a second horrific accident on the electronic bikes when he broke his arm in London while riding one in 2022.
