Simon Cowell has admitted he was ‘horrible’ to Susan Boyle, as he revealed his shame at how he acted at her first audition.
It has been nearly twenty years since unlikely superstar Susan Boyle stepped on the stage and belted out her audition piece, but the viral moment continues to haunt Simon Cowell.
Susan, now 65, was met with a sea of dissaproving faces, from the audience and panelists Amanda Holden, Piers Morgan and head judge Simon who failed to hide their feelings.
During a candid interview on Tales From The Celebrity Trenches podcast, the father of one admits the response of the three judges was “awful and horrible.”
View 3 ImagesSimon Cowell admits to feeling horrified by his reaction to Susan Boyle ahead of her 2009 BGT audition
He said: “I look back and I just think, ‘my God we look so awful, horrible.’ I actually don’t think we look bad enough. I think we were even worse than that and they went, ‘you look awful’. And I said, ‘we are awful!’ All of us.”
He continued: “I mean that look that Piers gives me, I think out of all the looks I’ve ever remembered that might be the worst. I was just as bad.”
The music mogul admits that he had the authority to cut his brutal reaction out of the episode but thought it was a wake up call for him and the other judges.
“You can’t judge a book by its cover,” he explained. During her audition, Susan revealed that her lifelong ambition was to be like singing sensation and musical theatre star Elaine Page.
Admitting that she had poorly judged Susan, Amanda said at the time: “I am so thrilled because I knew everyone was against you. “
View 3 ImagesPiers Morgan, Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell were on the panel of BGT back in 2009(Image: ITV)
She added: “I honestly think we were all being really cynical and I think that’s the biggest wake up call ever. I just want to say it was a complete privilege listening to that.”
Simon went on to say while on the podcast: “We do look disgusting but you have to hold your hands up at that moment and go, ‘A lot of people are going to realise in about 24 hours that we are just horrible’.”
The reaction of the judges and the crowd was certainly not lost on Susan either. In an interview with the Irish Mirror, she revealed that she was made to feel like a ‘circus freak’ during her audition.
At the time she said: “It felt quite suffocating, almost as though I was an act in a freak show, and that hurt.” Susan lost out dance group Diversity who were crowned winners of the third series of the ITV show.
But her loss did little to scupper her career as she went on to sell 23 million albums, she achieved UK and American number one hits and made her way into the Guinness World Records.
Ten years after her original appearance on the show, she returned and was warmly greeted by Simon on stage.
And things appear to be getting better and better for the star. She recently bought a beautiful new home close to her manager.
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