The crestfallen TV mogul, who likened her to Princess Di, sighed after their dramatic public split: “I would have liked an affair with Cheryl.” Acclaimed author Tom Bower reveals in his new book that Cowell fell under Cheryl’s spell during her frequent visits to his dressing room in their three years together as judges on X Factor.
Cowell confessed: “She would come in dressed in her tracksuit and slippers, drop her eyes and play the soulful victim to get around me. She played me.When Cheryl, 28, joined the panel his secret romance with Dannii had petered out and he was sorely tempted by the new girl.
The omens for the show were looking good with “a bitchy battle of the babes” developing. Cowell said gleefully: “That’s what the public wants.”
More than a decade younger and more beautiful than Dannii, she was permanently seated next to Cowell. Cheryl meanwhile claimed she looked on him as “an uncle”, but her distance just inflamed his interest.
As he prepared to launch X Factor in the US for 2011, Cowell believed Cheryl would be his secret weapon. He told TV execs: “I want to make her a star. People love her. She’s unstoppable.”
