Simon Cowell may be living the high life now, but it wasn’t always the case. It’s hard to believe, but he once didn’t have enough money for a single black t-shirt or pair of aviator shades. The media executive has opened up about being “broke” before he hit the big time.
Simon Cowell hasn’t always been rolling in cash
Simon revealed he once went bankrupt in his late 20s. In a recent episode of the How to Fail podcast, he explained that it all started when his first music venture failed. He said: “I had started a label with about £4,000 or £5,000, and someone had backed me financially. The guy who backed me … his company was bought by another company or something — I can’t remember — and that company went bust.”
The American Idol judge said the failure cost him big financially. He said: “I was in debt. I was, I mean literally, bankrupt. I owed the bank about, I think, £250,000 pounds [$300 million]. My house, I think, when I sold it, I still owed about 70 grand on the mortgage.”
He also revealed the moment that his situation really hit home. He said: “Luckily, my parents were living in London, and I had to get from my old house to their apartment, and I had just about £5. I kind of worked out, will the £5 get me in a cab to my mom and dad’s? And that was it. That was the moment I thought, ‘Christ almighty, I really am broke.”
He added that the failure taught him an important lesson: “I had success but just didn’t have any money. Everything became real at that point, and I really learned a lesson about don’t borrow money. Just live with what you have and just be happy with that.”
The TV producer has come a long way since – he’s said to have a net worth of around $600 million now.
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