Simon Cowell Net Worth, Money & More
NET WORTH : $370 MILLION
CAREER/ PROFESSION : MUSIC AND TALENT COMPETITION JUDGE, A & R EXECUTIVE, TELEVISION PRODUCER, ENTREPRENEUR & TELEVISION PERSONALITY
If there was ever a man who was loved for being unlikable, it would be Simon Cowell. The Briton shot to worldwide fame as the judge of The Idol, Got talent and X factor franchises in US and UK where his blunt remarks and unapologetic nastiness towards contestants began an era of love-hate relationship with the audiences. He is man that created and rules an entire province of the modern entertainment universe. His dominance over the present musical landscape can be ascertained from the fact that his company Syco has sold over 90 #1 singles and albums and has over 150 top ten records to its credit. During his stint as the judge of American Idol, the show made it to the no. 1 show on TV for seven seasons with peak viewership of 31 million in 2006 and was generating more than $430,000 for a 30-second ad, one of the highest rates on prime time. TV Guide ranked him #10 in their 2013 list of the Nastiest Villains of all time and Time acknowledged him as one of the 100 Most Influential people in the world in 2004 and 2013.
BEGIN FROM THE BEGINNING
Simon Cowell started displaying his scathing skills from a tender age of 4 when he admittedly told his mother, as she came down dressed for a formal event, she looked like a poodle. On being quizzed about his childhood aspirations he told a correspondent for the Independent that as a kid all he cared about was to drink and smoke, was terrible in school and used to get into a lot of trouble (Parents Roger that). After school he worked many odd jobs, his first being a production assistant on Stanley Kubrick’s film The Shining (1980). He later got a job in the mail room at EMI Music from where he worked his way up into music publishing and was involved with a few hit records. By his late 20s, He was a millionaire courtesy his record label Fanfare which later went bust forcing him to move in with his parents at the age of 30. After enduring years of ridicule and insults at BMG music, he was offered to judge the first series of Pop Idol in UK by the then ITV controller of entertainment- Claudia Rosencrantz. The rest, as they say, is history….
MINDS HIS OWN BUSINESS
Funnily enough, the most powerful person in pop- Simon Cowell, is neither a singer nor a musician. Still, the guy is a star-maker. Numerous recent pop sensations like Susan Boyle, Leona Lewis, Il Divo, Westlife, One direction etc. owe their success to Simon’s Television production and publishing house Syco. In the past decade, he has created an empire worth millions of dollars by producing reality shows that finds talent and reserves exclusive rights to sign the winners. They also make bundles by selling the formats worldwide and being paid to be part of a record company (Sony BMG) that then markets and promotes his stars. He is involved in many charity works and published his autobiography titled ‘I Don’t Mean to be Rude, but… ‘ in December 2003.
MONEY AND ASSETS
With a net worth of $370 million and an estimated annual salary of $95 million, who wouldn’t own a couple of mansions?? His 9,335 sq. ft house in Beverly Hills which he calls his “dream home” includes 5 bedrooms, a pool, a putting green at the rear of the property, state-of-the-art gym in the basement and a luxury spa complete with wet steam room. Moreover, the house also has a custom-made media room with a marble bar area, a private cinema with plush leather seating for 20 and an in-house solarium, complete with a full-length tanning machine and small ‘booster’ tanner for his face.
He is also building a $14 million home in Barbados and his main UK property is a $11.6 million house in West London’s posh Holland Park. Additionally, he owns a weekend home in Malaga and $1.6 million investment property on the Palm Jumeirah Island in Dubai. Recently, the LA times reported that he has enlisted his “bachelor pad” Beverly Hills mansion (not his dream house) for an asking price of $20 million and already has an Upper East Side apartment in New York City with his pregnant girlfriend, Laura Silverman.
VAIN IS IN
From driving his $1.7 million Bugatti just twice in 3 years to hiring privet jet just to get his way around the ‘no smoking’ rule of commercial vehicles, no one symbolizes vanity the way Cowell does. So brace yourself because this section is going to be long…
CARS – His first car was a Renault 5. He often talks very fondly about a second hand TR6 that he purchased after he went bankrupt and had to give up his white Porsche. His endless list of cars include 3 Rolls Royce Phantoms, Bugatti, Ferrari 458 Italia, Bentley AZURE, a Smart Car, Ford Model B, Mercedes SL55 AMG, range rover, Audi R8. The most recent addition to this enviable list is a new Caterham Se7en CSR.
CIGARETTES – Kool
PHONE - Uber flash Vertu, platinum complete with concierge button and bullet-proof screen.
JUMPER- Prada
SUIT- Tom ford
JEANS- 7For all Mankind
LIFESTYLE – He sleeps around 2 or 3 in the morning and gets up at 11, watches cartoon – The Jetsons and the Flintstones for about an hour and consumes smoothies prepared using exotic ingredients flown in from around the world especially for him. His annual Mediterranean holidays have become somewhat of a tradition with him paying $73 million for chartered yacht Slipsteam this year. He also loves to organize parties. He reportedly spent £250,000 on his mother’s 80th birthday party at the Savoy in 2005 and £1m on his 50th birthday party.
Cowell has been very open about taking Botox, vitamin injections and his £10,000 veneers. Surprisingly, despite all his vanity, he is strictly against dyeing hair.
RELATIONSHIPS
Cowell has been romantically involved with a string of women but never took any of his relationships to the next level. He dated model Jackie St Clair in the 70s, glamour model Louise Payne between 1995 and 1998 and Page 3 model and lap dancer Georgina law around 2000. He had brief flings with former celebrity Big Brother star Jasmine Lennard and British-American singer Sinitta. He also had a relationship with Dannii Minogue in 2007 and TV presenter Terri Seymour between 2003 and 2008. He called off his engagement to make-up artist Mezhgan Hussainy after a 3 year long relationship between 2009 and 2011. However, it looks like Simon has finally found true love in present girlfriend Laura Silverman who is pregnant with his child. He continues to maintain close friendships with most of his Exes.
ISN’T ALL PRESS, GOOD PRESS????
The Music Mogul has been at the heart of numerous controversies as well. Intense media frenzy was generated when the news that Cowell has impregnated the wife of his long-time friend Andrew Silverman broke out. Reportedly, a £31,000 ‘fine’ is imposed on Cowell if he tries to meet Adam, the 7 year old son of Laura Silverman with her estranged husband. Another major controversy in his life, aptly named by the media as “The clash of the Simons”, was getting sued by the creator of the Idol franchise – Simon Fuller who claimed that Cowell’s new show The X factor was a derivative of The Pop Idol. Both of these cases were settled out of court.
BEING SIMON
Simon Cowell is a mixture of opposites. Although he is largely seen as a villain, he is known to respect talented and hard-working people. He doesn’t believe in 5 days a week or 8 hours a day, he wants 24/7. Despite all his vanity, he still maintains he has average tastes, prefers chips and sausages over Michelin starred food and attributes his success to the fact that his tastes match the non-elitist and simplistic tastes of the masses.
But the $370 million dollar question still remains- Why does the world love Simon Cowell despite hating him so much???? Has the world come to appreciate rudeness all of a sudden or is it to do with the fact that his harsh truths offer people a welcome change from all the hypocrisy, pretentiousness and political correctness that seems to dominate the world these days?? He justifies himself -
“There are people who come on and you like them within seconds, and you want to give them good news, and then there are other people who come out and they tell you that they’ve been blessed and this is their destiny, and they’ve never worked a day in their life, and they think it’s all going to happen. I must have met tons like that. I don’t feel bad.”
Contributor: Shreeja Singh
