Simon Cowell: Fiancée was my big mistake
SIMON Cowell has revealed his engagement to sultry Mezhgan Hussainy was “a big mistake”.
The X Factor mogul, 61, told pals he and Mezhgan, 48, split after blazing rows — but he gave her a £5million house as a farewell gift.
Cowell admitted after his fiery relationship with Mezhgan bit the dust: “I’m a hopeless boyfriend.”
The telly boss was left soul-searching when he pulled out of their wedding plans amid blistering arguments.
If there was a choice between power, sex and money — his priority was always going to be power.
But he insisted: “I don’t blame her” and admitted his failure to commit could infuriate women.
He said: “I’m attracted to crazy women. I encourage crazy behaviour and I make them crazy.
“I’m attracted to certain personalities who are difficult to control. So there are tantrums, tears and fights, which is all part of the drama. My life is really odd.
“Every girl wants to be number one and they’re very territorial. I like the fight, because otherwise I’d have a dull group of girlfriends.”
The Sun revealed exclusively yesterday that Cowell bedded fellow X Factor judge Dannii Minogue, 48, failed in a bid to seduce Aussie pop beauty Natalie Imbruglia, 45, and was obsessed with Cheryl Cole, 28, when she joined the show.
Today we can detail Cowell’s heartache as he realised he could not face marrying American Idol make-up artist Mezhgan.
He wound up imploring friends not to leave him alone with Mezhgan, because her mistrust and anger made him feel suffocated.
After she stormed out of a family dinner, Cowell’s mum late mum Julie sighed: “The way Mezhgan behaved makes my stomach churn.”
Unable to live with the sexy Afghan any longer, he moved into a hotel. The previously untold story of the mogul’s engagement and split come in the second part of The Sun’s exclusive serialisation of Sweet Revenge — Tom Bower’s new biography of Cowell.
Bower tells how Cowell proposed on Valentine’s Day 2010 — presenting Mezhgan with a surprise engagement ring.
The couple were in the bedroom of his home in Holland Park, West London.
Days before, during the Britain’s Got Talent auditions, Cowell had chosen a rectangular six-carat diamond set in platinum.
It cost £250,000 from Bond Street jewellers Graff.
Now he slipped out of bed and padded over to his dressing room to collect the ring and pop the question.
Thrilled Mezhgan replied: “Oh, yes. Yes, yes.”
The following night Cowell’s mum arrived to stay with the couple. She had recently been urging her son: “Before I go, it would be nice if I could see
you settled down.”
To her delight, Cowell told her: “I’ve got engaged.”
Cowell began telling friends the news two days later.
But cracks in the relationship soon began to show.
Gossips at US show American Idol claimed Mezhgan had lured Cowell into their engagement — “like a kitten, who knows what to do in the bedroom”.
They also alleged her age was 41 and not 36, as she claimed.
Mezhgan moved into Cowell’s palatial home in Beverly Hills.
Mum Julie, though, was already having doubts about the match.
Mezhgan seem to make little effort to get close to Cowell’s family — and never appeared before 3pm.
Bewildered Julie would ask: “What are you doing up there?” Her intended daughter-in-law’s replies led Julie to suspect that her peculiar habits could be caused by jet lag.
She observed: “She’s the only American I’ve ever met who comes to London and doesn’t want to see Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London. She doesn’t seem to be interested in anything.”
Unwilling to spoil her son’s happiness, she said nothing to him at the time.
Cowell and Mezhgan returned to Los Angeles on his private jet and met her parents to get their blessing for the planned marriage.
But by April 2010, Julie could clearly see the relationship was cracking under pressure when she visited the couple in LA.
There were production difficulties on American Idol and as a result Cowell had been getting home late for dinner.
To his mother’s distress, Mezhgan was angry with him. “Don’t say anything,” she advised the younger woman on the third night. When he comes in, just give him a kiss and smile and say, ‘Hi, I missed you’. Just don’t nag him.”
But when Cowell arrived he was met with a barrage of abuse.
Mezhgan shouted: “You’re late. I thought you’d be here by now.”
Cowell’s response was to find himself some space. He went into the garden and sat listening to music.
The TV tycoon smoked a cigarette and drank a beer, interrupted only by texts and telephone calls.
But Mezhgan repeatedly demanded: “What are you doing?”
Cowell realised she did not understand that she could neither change nor control him.
Julie recalled: “The tension was horrendous. The way Mezhgan behaved made my stomach churn.”
As they sat down for dinner, Cowell’s mobile rang. “Who is it?’ asked Mezhgan in a fiery tone. “Who are you texting now?”
A violent argument erupted. She got up, screaming abuse and ran upstairs, slamming shut the bedroom door.
Shocked Julie said to Cowell: “Charming. I’m shattered by the way she behaves.” He told his mum: “Sit down. We’ll eat alone.”
Julie warned: “Something’s wrong here, Simon. It’s not what we thought. I was very happy and now I’m not.” Cowell agreed: “There’s a problem.”
Later he flew to London alone, having decided not to invite his fiancée.
To his closest friends he admitted: “I’ve made a big mistake.”
While in his Los Angeles home, friends had noticed Cowell was unusually silent, as if trapped and uncertain how to escape.
His need for uncomplicated relationships was being compromised by an uncomprehending woman. He became weary with the burden.
Tearful Mezhgan had demanded a date for their wedding.
But after returning from London, Cowell moved into the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles, to give himself time without her.
Guilt-ridden, he then admitted that he was reneging on his promise to marry Mezhgan.
To his worried mother’s relief, he quietly cancelled the wedding.
The world learned of their split early this year.
Cowell and Mezhgan met in 2002, when he began making American Idol in the States and Mezhgan was doing make-up for the show’s stars.
They began an affair in 2006, while he was living with former girlfriend
Terri Seymour. But they only started dating openly in December 2009.
Respected biographer and journalist Bower spent more than a year interviewing friends, lovers and business acquaintances of the X Factor and Britain’s Got
Talent boss, as well as Cowell himself.
He says Mezhgan failed to understand the stresses in Cowell’s life. She was unsympathetic, Julie and Simon agreed, to his love of uncertainty and change and his “relentless, relentless, relentless competitiveness”.
Cowell later explained: “We came to the conclusion that I’m a hopeless boyfriend — and I don’t blame her.”
But he had agreed there would have to be compensation, saying: “When you make a promise to someone you have to support her.”
To protect himself from embarrassment and his fiancée from misery, he pledged to provide for all her material needs.
He said: “I put her in the public eye and attracted a lot of attention to her.
“I had to be sensitive about her position and I didn’t want to hurt her family, with whom I had become very close.”
Cowell was keen to keep a close friendship with Mezhgan, like his relationships with some of his other ex-lovers.
He promised to transfer the ownership of his £5million hill-top house in Cole
Place, Beverly Hills to her. She would laugh when he later joked: “I’ve found the ideal place for you. I just drove past it.”
“I know what you’re thinking,” she replied. “Yes,” he laughed, “Forest Lawn.”
Forest Lawn, in Hollywood Hills, is a favourite celebrity cemetery.
In yesterday’s extract from Sweet Revenge, it was revealed that Cowell began
sleeping with Aussie star Dannii after she joined X Factor.
He described her as “the new toy”. But the affair petered out because he was not ready for a relationship after breaking up with Terri Seymour.
He also hoped for nights of passion after inviting Natalie Imbruglia to his yacht. But she rebuffed him and left after four days.
© The Sun. Our lawyers are watching.
SWEET Revenge: The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell by Tom Bower is published
by Faber and Faber. Price £18.99.