Simon Cowell’s eight-year-old son Eric has been trying to help him quit smoking
(Picture: Getty Images)Simon Cowell’s eight-year-old son Eric seems determined to help his dad quit smoking once and for all.
The music mogul, 63, has cut down considerably on cigarettes in recent years after admitting at one time he smoked up to 80 a day.
So extreme was his habit, he would frequently incur the wrath of X Factor bosses by opting to pay a £100 fine every time he did it, rather than step outside.
While he has given vaping a go, he has seemed unable to quit altogether.
That’s where Eric – Simon’s son with his socialite fiancée Lauren Silverman - comes in.
Eric’s godmother Sinitta – who used to date Cowell in the Eighties – has dished that the youngster is working on cracking his famous dad’s habit.
Sinitta told the Sun : “He [Eric] follows him around and only allows Simon to have one puff of a cigarette. He always says ‘how many puffs, how many puffs’. Eric is like a little cigarette police and keeps him on his toes.
“He doesn’t see himself as addicted because he says he can cut down whenever he wants,” the Right Back Where We Started singer continued.
“He probably smokes one cigarette, maybe two a day. But what he does is light one cigarette and has one puff and puts it out – he does that multiple times during the day.”
Simon has been saying he wants to ditch the cigarettes and live a healthier lifestyle ever since Eric was born, there’s just one problem – he’d find life “too boring” without them.
He previously explained: “If I tried to cut out cigarettes completely, I would have a real problem: too boring.
“It’s the same with drinking. I’m pretty good at cutting back when I need to.”
Adding: “I’m not going to lie – whenever I’m seen out it’s with a cigarette and a beer in my hand. So I think I’ve been rumbled as far as that goes.”
