Simon Cowell made headlines this week when reports surfaced that the 52-year-old had impregnated Lauren Silverman, the estranged wife of Cowell’s good friend Andrew Silverman.
The New York City socialite is reportedly 10 weeks pregnant, and scrambling to finalize her separation from her husband, a real estate mogul. The 36-year-old cozied up to reality television’s most verbose judge after she and her husband initially split.
The shocking news of Cowell’s fatherhood comes soon after the Brit dated actress Carmen Electra.
“We're people who date,” Cowell said On the Air with Ryan Seacrest last December. “She's adorable, isn't she?”
The American Idol meanie came under speculation about his sexuality this past spring, despite being connected with True Blood actress Janina Gavankar around the time he was spotted with Electra. Though rumors about Cowell’s sexuality have surfaced repeatedly, he said the gossip does not affect him.
“I couldn't care less, it's nothing to be ashamed of,” Cowell said in April of this year. “It feels like such an antiquated question now."
A year before gossip surfaced that Cowell could be gay, writer Tom Bower released an unauthorized biography about the music producer, including details of an alleged affair that ended his engagement with Mezhgan Hussainey in 2010.
When the engagement broke two years after Cowell popped the question, the X Factor judge said that their relationship had been “complicated,” and he was feeling “vulnerable.”
"It's not on, it's not off, it's somewhere in the middle,” Cowell told The Daily Mail in 2012. “I don't know if I will ever get married, but I am happy."
Before falling for Hussainey, Cowell had been linked to actress Denise Richards and fellow American Idol judge Paula Abdul. Despite their constant bickering, Cowell seemed to enjoy spending time with the singer off the air, saying that they have “a similar sense of humor.”
“It's like owning a dog and the dog will only sit next to its master,” Cowell told People back in 2011. “It's comfortable. If she's away from me, she pines. She's unhappy. She has to sit next to me."
Cowell continued his dog and owner analogy about his relationship with Abdul months later , saying that his comments were said with “love,” and that he often felt Abdul looked at him “like the dog would look at the can of dog food.”
Abdul and Cowell perpetuated the uncertainty about their relationship during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in late 2011 in which Abdul called her fellow judge “a selfish lover.”
"I've thought about it," Cowell said when asked if he would date Abdul. "But then I'd have to talk to her afterwards. It would be uncomfortable."
Cowell must not have worried if things would get “uncomfortable” between he and friend Silverman when he began a romantic relationship with the New Yorker’s 36-year-old wife. For now, Cowell has to worry about whether or not he will be comfortable around his child, having said in 2009 that he “couldn’t have children,” because he would “go nuts.”
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