The AMERICA’S GOT TALENT judges’ table will look a little empty over the next few weeks as Simon Cowell undergoes back surgery.
Following an electric bike accident in 2020, Cowell has dealt with back issues, Fox News Digital reported.
“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,” he told Extra in 2020 of the accident. “I knew I’d broken my back the minute I landed, it was really, really kind of sudden and it hurt.”
The judge added: “You’re not supposed to move,” but that’s not what was going through his mind when he initially crashed.
“I was thinking, ‘I’ve got to get back into the house because I can’t lie there’…and made myself kind of get carried into my bedroom, which is right there at the beginning of the house, and I’m lying there and I’m kind of passing out…It was surreal,” he recalled.
After the accident, Cowell was taken to the hospital where he underwent a six-hour fusion surgery, which included metal rods and screws to repair his broken back.
“I was a millimeter away from breaking my spine, which would’ve been a disaster,” he said on THE KELLY CLARKSON SHOW. “In a weird way, it was kind of meant to happen because I was really pushing my luck. I was buying these crazy, crazy bikes and this particular bike I bought had so much power, I was thrown about eight feet in the air, landed on my back, in front of [son] Eric, by the way.”
Related: Simon Cowell Credits Son for Making Him a More Empathetic Judge
It wasn’t easy being back home afterwards.
“The hardest thing was, and I said this to [fiancée] Lauren [Silverman] 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],’” Cowell told Extra. “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.”
For Cowell, the hardest part about the recovery process was being so “helpless.”
“I’ve never been in this situation in my life where you literally can’t move. 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. Sure enough, that’s what happened,” he said.
Cowell was injured in another e-bike accident in 2022 and broke his arm.
Currently AGT is scheduling guest judges to fill in for Cowell.
“Obviously medical matters are private, but it’s routine and he will be back in a few weeks,” his media representative told Entertainment Weekly.
Pray for Cowell as he heads into another surgery and recovery process.
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