Simon Cowell has been a prominent figure in the public eye for decades, but away from the cameras he’s dealt with a number of health challenges. The music mogul has powered through a magnitude of illness during his heyday and it’s still often ongoing, with the Britain’s Got Talent judge having to miss some live shows recently due to his health.

He has been replaced by Stacey Solomon for a period after he fell ill during the first round of auditions in Birmingham. Organisers changed things up to avoid cancelling auditions or working with just three judges. At the time, a source told The Sun that bosses were “so grateful to her for agreeing at such short notice”.

But as Simon stepped away from the auditions due to his health, what has he been dealing with?

Simon is said to deal with migraines quite a lot, and it’s been reported as the reason he had to step away from the BGT auditions. A source told The Sun after his swift exit that he had a terrible headache and migraine which had been caused by an accidental bump on the head.

He’s since been back to full health and is back in his seat.

It’s not the first time he’s had to miss auditions due to his migraines, he has previously said on Instagram that he gets them after long days of filming in the lights.

Migraines can also be caused by stress.

Simon has had two accidents relating to electric bikes, one in 2020 and one in 2022.

The TV star suffered a serious accident while testing an electric motorcycle which caused him to break his back and break a nerve in his arm, the ordeal nearly meant he needed to spend his life in a wheelchair.

He broke his back in multiple places and he had to have a six hour surgery to place a metal rod and screws in his spine to stabilise his back, he had to miss a significant amount of time on air.

Just two years later he was hospitalised once again after crashing an electric bike after hitting a wet patch, he broke his arm as a result and had to wear a cast.

Anxiety is another health battle that Simon has been open about having, finally turning to therapy after some encouragement from friends. He recognised that after the Covid-19 pandemic, more people were talking about mental health, and so he visited a therapist.

After a few sessions, he explained that he started to process the issues he felt he had been holding back, especially on the focus on TV ratings for his shows.

Simon told The Mirror: “He asked me, ‘Do you consider your best work to be the highest-rated thing you’ve ever done?'”

“And I said, ‘No.’ And he said, ‘So why are you judging yourself on that?’”

“It was just like this massive load lifting off my shoulders. Now I am happy to talk about it to encourage others too.”

He has also previously explained that this additional stress can cause him to have a stutter, previously stating: “There are times when I just can’t get the words out for whatever reason, sometimes when I’m stressed.”