Simon Cowell is reflecting positively on his 2020 E-bike injury, which resulted in six hours of surgery.
The Britain’s Got Talent judge broke his back in August 2020 after he fell from an electric bicycle he was testing at his home in Malibu, California.
He underwent intense surgery for the accident, which included having a metal rod put in his back to stabilise it.
“It was painful, it wasn’t great,” he told the TODAY show in a recent interview with fellow America’s Got Talent stars Howie Mandel, Sofia Vergara, Heidi Klum and Terry Crews.
“However, I was so unfit before the accident. I didn’t know how unfit I was until I had to do all this stuff afterwards,” he explained. “And I’m like, ‘My God.’ Things like that, I believe happened for a reason.”
Asked if – after a second serious E-bike crash in 2022 – he would be hanging up his cycling gloves, Cowell responded: “I’m still gonna stay on my bike. I’m obsessed with these things.”
Last year, Cowell said he was “lucky to survive” his back surgery after the first accident.
“I didn’t talk about it too much at the time,” he told OK! “I kept a lot back. It was a lot worse than people thought. I had a lot of long-term nerve damage as well.
“Just when I thought the bones had healed, I went with [my son] Eric to a funfair and tried to kick a football and it was agony.”
Due to his injuries, Cowell was unable to appear in the 2020 season of Britain’s Got Talent and was temporarily replaced by previous winner Ashley Banjo.
“If there was one good thing about lockdown, it was that it gave me the time to heal because I wasn’t working on a TV show,” he admitted. “I was able to walk a lot and strengthen my legs.
“I know I was lucky to survive my back surgery. I have a lot of people to thank for my recovery.”
