Simon Cowell.Photo:Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
Simon Cowellis prioritizing his health and family ahead of his new gig.
While speaking to PEOPLE on the red carpet Wednesday ahead of a taping for the new NBC series,America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League, the 64-year-old talent judge opens up about the ways he’s allocated his work to be more present in his home life.
“Don’t work on Fridays, because you don’t have to,” he says. “Eat dinner at five o’clock. Don’t take calls after 5:30. Don’t read emails after 5:30. Watch a happy movie and stay outside.”
The television personality adds, “I don’t think anyone should be working five days a week. It’s just pointless. Do something you enjoy. I’ve really enjoyed doing this.”
Lauren Silverman, Eric Cowell and Simon Cowell.Steve Granitz/WireImage
Steve Granitz/WireImage
TheAmerican Idolalum also opened up about some of thesimple joys of parentingand how he’s gone to lengths he’d never thought he’d go for his sonEric, 9.
“You can’t fake it,” he says of spending time with his child. “You’ve got to be absolutely focused, because they know when you’re faking it, and it’s kind of like, ‘Okay, what do you want to do today?’ ‘I want to drive 25 miles to buy a Pokémon card.’ I’m like, ‘Brilliant! We’ll do it!’ And you just kind of just gotta go there. Andit really is worth it. it really is.”
Simon Cowell.Trae Patton/NBC via Getty
Trae Patton/NBC via Getty
This isn’t the first time Cowell has opened up about howEric has changed his relationship with workfor the better.
“If Eric hadn’t come along, God knows what would have happened,” he toldThe Sunin October 2022. “Before Eric, my life was 99 percent work. I was obsessed with it.”
Cowell shares his son, who was born in 2014, with his fiancéeLauren Silverman. Eric was named after his late father, with whom he was very close before his death.
“After I lost my mum and my dad, you kind of think you’re never going to feel that love again — that’s it. Then you have kids, and, though I never thought I would feel that way, it’s beyond your love for your parents,” he said. “It almost hurts how much you love them. Then you start thinking, ‘When he grows up, what’s his dad going to have done?’ I think about that a lot.”
Simon Cowell and Eric Cowell.Rich Fury/Getty
Rich Fury/Getty
Before the birth of his son, theAmerica’s Got Talentstar admitted he was “really unhappy.”
“Now Eric is around, I don’t work through the night anymore. If he hadn’t come along, God knows what would have happened. The thought of it — I can’t deal with that,” he said with emotion.
Besides raising Eric, Cowell is staying busy serving as a judge onAmerica’s Got Talent: Fantasy League,a spinoff of the NBC hitAmerica’s Got Talent.
The new series, set to premiere on Jan. 1, will see 40 of the show’smost beloved actscompete against each other on the fantasy teams of Cowell and fellow judgesHeidi Klum,Howie MandelandMel B. For the first time inAGThistory, the judges will not only guide their acts through the competition but will also compete beside them as they vye for the title ofAGT: Fantasy Leaguechampion and a monetary prize of $250,000.
Fans can expect the return ofthe Golden Buzzerto send talent acts into the finale, but this time, there’s a special twist. The judges will have the opportunity to use the Golden Buzzer for their own acts or steal one from another’s team.
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America’s Got Talent: Fantasy Leaguepremieres Monday, Jan. 1 at 8 p.m. ET on NBCand will stream the next day on Peacock.
source: people.com
