Simon Cowell went through a bout of bankruptcy during the early days of his career in his late 20s.
“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,” Cowell, 66, said during his appearance on the “How to Fail” podcast, released on Monday, January 6. “I was in debt.”
He continued, “I was, I mean literally, bankrupt. I owed the bank about, I think, £250,000 pounds. My house, I think, when I sold it, I still owed about 70 grand on the mortgage.”
A quarter of a million dollars in pounds converts to well over $300,000. Cowell had to “get rid of everything” because he was so deep in the hole.
Revisiting One Direction’s History With Simon Cowell: ‘X Factor’ and More
“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,” he continued. “That was the moment I thought, ‘Christ almighty, I really am broke.’ But they were brilliant.”
Cowell’s parents treated it like he “learned a lesson” from the entire experience.
“I found, then, a bank manager, who lent me some money to pay back the other bank over time,” he said. “I just, in a weird way, kind of got lucky with it.”
Cowell explained that “he succeeded but failed” during that time in his life.
“I had success but just didn’t have any money,” he said. “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.”
Cowell also reflected on this time in his life with Us Weekly exclusively last month while promoting his latest venture, The Next Act, a docuseries which released via Netflix last month.
Simon Cowell Is on the Hunt to Create a New Boy Band After One Direction
“When you’ve lost your house, your car, everything, and you’re still in debt, it’s a real kind of like, ‘Whoa.’ Actually, it’s not as bad as you think as long as you’ve got support around you,” he told Us during his appearance on our Just Like Us video series. “I didn’t lose any friends. My mom and dad were amazing. I managed to pay back what I owed.”
Despite the hard times, Cowell — who is known for signing some major musicians, like One Direction — has no regrets about his past money struggles.
“I now appreciate what I’ve got, and I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way,” he said, “With a credit card, you’ve got to pay it back! It’s not like you can just buy things. You actually have to pay a bill.”
Cowell added, “But no one teaches you that [once] I left school. Your first credit card arrives, it’s like, ‘Brilliant, I can buy anything!’ And then you get a bill. I’m like, ‘S***, I can’t pay the bill.” And so that was kind of a learning curve.”
