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'I was exhausted. I nearly walked away from it all.' He ditched his phone, banned the news and gave up 1,000 meetings a year – to find happiness at home with his four-year-old son and ‘best friend’ Eric  

My favourite Simon Cowell story involves a ventriloquist named Terry Fator. He was a chubby, middle-aged guy who won the second series of America’s Got Talent by throwing his voice to sing songs through puppets.

I was one of the show’s judges, backed him from the start, and predicted he’d go on to be a huge star. But Cowell – who, as AGT creator and executive producer held the rights to manage Fator’s career if he wanted to – didn’t think he could make any serious money from a bloke in his 40s singing Roy Orbison’s Crying with his hand up a turtle’s backside.