Simon Cowell has opened up about the horrifying moment he broke his back last year.
Back in August, the America’s Got Talent judge underwent a six-hour surgery on his back, after he fell off an electric bike at his home in Malibu.
Speaking about the incident for the first time during an interview with his longtime friend Terri Seymour for Extra, Simon admitted he was close to being paralysed.
The 61-year-old said: “It could have been a lot worse.”
“When I saw the X-ray, I really nearly smashed my spine to pieces, so I literally wouldn’t have been able to walk.”
Speaking about the accident, he explained: “It was really, really kind of sudden and it hurt… I knew I’d broken my back the minute I landed.”
Simon then noted that Terri waited outside the hospital all night with his girlfriend Lauren Silverman – after he was rushed in for surgery.
Terri replied: “Lauren was amazing, running around after you, nursing you back to health.”
The music mogul gushed: “She was amazing. Both her and Eric, they were like my support. I couldn’t have gotten through it without them, so we got closer.”
Speaking about his recovery at home, Simon explained: “The hardest thing was, and I said this to Lauren when I came out of the hospital… I was so embarrassed about coming home looking about 100 because I couldn’t walk, and I have these metal rods in my back and these screws…”
“I said, ‘Lauren, I just don’t know how to explain it to [Eric].’ She obviously said something to him because he came in… and I was lying in bed and he said, ‘Daddy, you’re like Ironman,’ and I thought that was the sweetest thing and it meant a lot.”
Simon admitted the toughest part of his recovery was “the helplessness”.
“I’ve never been in this situation in my life where you literally can’t move,” he said.
“The pain was off the charts… But you’ve got to stay positive… I made a promise to myself I’d be fitter than I was before I had the accident. And sure enough, that’s what happened.”
Simon revealed he’s excited to get back to work on America’s Got Talent, which returns to NBC in May.
