Simon Cowell looks back on one of Britain’s Got Talent most unforgettable moments with serious regrets.
Appearing in the first episode of Celebrity Trenches On May 6, the music mogul admitted that he and his fellow judges had been “horrible” in how they reacted to Susan Boyle before her now-iconic 2009 audition.
“I look back and I just think, ‘My God, we look so horrible, horrible,'” Cowell, 66, said. “Actually, I don’t think we looked bad enough. I think we looked even worse than that and they said, ‘You look terrible.’
Cowell was referring to the visible skepticism shared between him, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan before Boyle stunned the audience with his powerful rendition of I had a dream Since Les Miserables.
“It was a bit of a wake-up call. You can’t judge a book by its cover,” Cowell admitted. “We look really disgusting…”
The audition remains one of the most talked about moments in reality television, propelling Boyle to worldwide fame almost overnight.
Boyle herself has previously spoken about the painful experience, admitting that she felt deeply judged when she first took the stage. “It was quite stifling, almost like I was an actor in a freak show, and it hurt,” she told the Irish mirror.
Despite a difficult start, Boyle had the last laugh. She finished second that season and became an international sensation, with a career said to have earned her around £30 million.
