Simon Cowell: ‘I felt depressed and like an idiot over Jules & Matisse stunt double’
He speaks for the first time
Simon Cowell has spoken out for the first time about the row that’s erupted in the wake of Jules O’Dwyer’s Britain’s Got Talent win.
Jules and her dog Matisse were crowned winners of the ITV talent show ahead of magician Jamie Raven on Sunday night, however the following day it emerged Jules used a second stunt dog called Chase to do the tightrope walk.
Ofcom has received 365 complaints over the stunt double, while ITV has received a further 130. Outraged viewers took to Twitter claiming they were misled.
Speaking out about the furore, Simon Cowell called the use of a second dog a “c*** up” rather than a conspiracy and admitted he “felt like a bit of an idiot.”
He told the Daily Mirror: “The moment I found out I literally put my head in my hands. I spoke to a lot of people after, and I did raise my voice.
“But it was mainly people owning up to it. They felt embarrassed, they felt frustrated, they felt stupid, but you’ve got to man up to this stuff.”
Admitting he was initially “really p***ed off” with the whole situation, Simon said panicked producers started to call him as the reports exploded.
“I could hear in their voices, some were in tears, just mad at themselves,” Simon explained.
Despite the controversy, Simon insists that Jules is in no way responsible for the situation: “I feel that I let her down and that the show let her down.
“She shouldn’t have to be in this position because she didn’t do anything wrong. But I hopefully reassured her she should put on very good show for the Queen.
“As she explained to me last night, ‘it wasn’t just about me and Matisse, like Ashleigh and Pudsey’. They should have been called Jules, Matisse and Friends.”
Cowell went on to insist that heads won’t roll over the furore: “The producers are absolutely gutted. I was so depressed yesterday for the show, for Jules and for the producers themselves, because they are not horrible people. They made a stupid mistake on a live show.
“They didn’t think about how it would appear. I was frustrated because I didn’t really know what I was judging until afterwards so I felt like a bit of an idiot.
“I’m connected with the show, so if a contestant leaves feeling unhappy I have to take some responsibility.”