For the first time, the music mogul has talked about the issues that drove him to therapy in his 60s.
He now wished he had gone for therapy two decades ago, crediting it with having a “super positive effect” on his life. Simon even had to ban his staff from telling him the ratings of his famous show, such as Britain’s Got Talent. It was done to keep him from judging himself based on the success of his television empire.
In a chat with Mirror, Simon said, “I’ve suffered from depression over the years, but that was just something I just thought, ‘well, that’s my character trait. I get down,’ and it’s something you deal with.” He added, “I wish I had done this 10 or 20 years ago…it’s like a weight has lifted off my shoulders.”
Simon lived in his Los Angeles house with his fiance Lauren Silverman and their nine-year-old son Eric. He became concerned about contracting coronavirus and claims to have tested himself “more than 1,000 times.”
“In the very, very, very early stages, some friends of mine got really ill and I’m talking about really ill”, said Simon.
”So, I thought, ‘God, if I catch this, maybe the same thing’s going to happen to me, Eric and Lauren. I didn’t know what was true or not [on the news], I just didn’t have a clue other than I was petrified about catching it. Just petrified.”
He added, As the world began to return to normal, Simon set about focusing on his mental health, “like going to the gym for my brain.”
He had already changed his lifestyle after being vegan, which caused him to drop quite a bit of weight.
Simon had a lightbulb moment after going on a journey for better mental health when his therapist pointed out that he was judging himself based on his TV ratings. The next day, he sent an email to his staff in which he stated that he no longer wanted to be informed about how many millions of people had watched his shows.
He added, “We’re not all made of steel and there’s going to be times in our lives where you just need somebody to talk to.”