bashes

Music mogul Simon Cowell has finally explained his recent Britain’s Got Talent absence, revealing he suffered a fall that left him with a head injury

Simon Cowell has revealed that his recent no-show at Britain’s Got Talent auditions came after he fell down another set of steps – the latest in a series of mishaps for the long-time judge.

The 66-year-old music mogul missed the first two days of filming in Birmingham after the incident, leaving producers to call in Stacey Solomon to temporarily fill his place on the panel.

Cowell then later reappeared on the third day of auditions with a visible graze on his forehead, explaining only that he’d had “an accident.”

His absence was finally addressed during the show’s Blackpool auditions, when a choir made up of ambulance staff took to the stage. Amanda Holden joked: “I thought they might be here in case anything went wrong with you again because you were poorly last week.”

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Laughing off the comment, Cowell clarified what actually had happened as he finally shared the truth.

Speaking to the audience at the Winter Gardens, he said: “I fell down some steps, that wasn’t poorly, and I bumped my head, but I’m fine now.

“I wish you had been around a couple of weeks ago when I actually bashed my head. Seriously, no one sang for me then,” he added.

A show insider said the fall was a minor accident. They told The Sun: “Simon bumped his head when he stumbled on some steps. It’s the sort of thing that can happen to anyone. And, thankfully, he’s absolutely fine now.”

The timing of the incident, which occurred on October 1 and just a day before Birmingham auditions were due to begin, forced the show to cancel the opening session.

Rather than pause production entirely, Stacey Solomon was drafted in to maintain the four-judge panel, with Amanda Holden briefly stepping up as head judge.

Cowell later reassured fans via a short video, showing off the mark on his forehead and saying: “It’s Simon, I’m alive and I’m in Birmingham, I just want to say thank you for all your get well messages.”

It’s not the first time Cowell has been injured in a fall. In 2017, he was taken from his London home on a stretcher wearing a neck brace after tumbling down stairs just before The X Factor live shows.

Three years later, he broke his back testing an electric bike in Los Angeles, requiring major surgery and months of recovery.

Despite his latest setback, Cowell appeared in good spirits this week as he joined judges Amanda Holden, KSI, and Alesha Dixon on the red carpet for the Blackpool auditions.

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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gathered 800 top US military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia for an unprecedented meeting, where he railed against “political correctness” and revealed 10 directives to restore strict standards on fitness, grooming, and discipline.

SACRAMENTO — Moments after California lawmakers passed a plan designed to undercut attempts by the president and fellow Republicans to keep control of Congress, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state’s proposed partisan redistricting that favors Democrats is a necessary counterweight to President Trump’s threat to American democracy.

Trump’s assault on vote by mail and decision to send the military into U.S. cities are evidence of his authoritarian policies, and California must do its part to keep him in check, Newsom said.

By deploying federal immigration agents in roving street raids and activating thousands of members of the National Guard in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Newsom said, Trump is amassing “a private army for Donald Trump.”

“He’s trying to rig the election, he’s trying to set up the conditions where he can claim that the elections were not won fair and square,” Newsom said. “Open your eyes to what is going on in the United States of America in 2025.”

The argument is a preview of the messaging for the ballot measure campaign that Newsom and his Democratic Party allies will be running over the next 74 days.

On Thursday, California lawmakers signed off on a Nov. 4 special election that will put partisan redistricting in front of California voters.

The ballot measure, called Proposition 50, will ask voters to discard the congressional boundaries drawn by the state’s independent redistricting commission in 2021 in favor of partisan districts that could boot as many as five California Republicans out of Congress.

“When all things are equal, and we’re all playing by the same set of rules,” Newsom said, “there’s no question that the Republican Party will be the minority party in the House of Representatives next year.”

California is “responding to what occurred in Texas, we’re neutralizing what occurred, and we’re giving the American people a fair chance,” Newsom said.

National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina accused Newsom of trying to “rig” the system to advance his own political career.

“Instead of fixing the homelessness, crime, drug, and cost crises crushing the Golden State, Gavin Newsom is tearing up California’s Constitution to advance his presidential ambitions,” Hudson said in a statement.

California’s new lines would neutralize efforts in Texas to redraw their congressional district maps to help elect five more GOP candidates in 2026. The Texas Legislature is expected to approve new district lines this week.

The other option, Newsom said, is for California and Democrats to “roll over and do nothing.”

“I think people all across the country are going to campaign here in California for this,” Newsom said. “They recognize what’s at stake. It’s not just about the state of California. It’s about the United States of America. It’s about rigging the election. It’s about completely gutting the rules.”

Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.