Absence really does make the heart grow fonder! Simon Cowell is desperately missing one of his favorite foods after making some big changes to his diet and losing about 20 pounds.
“I miss [pizza] so much! That’s my thing,” the Brit, 60, told Us Weekly and other reporters at the America’s Got Talent premiere at the Pasadena Civic Center, in Pasadena, California, recently.
“My boy loves pizza,” he continued, noting that his 6-year-old son Eric is a fan of the Italian staple. “The other day we’re at the back of the car and I got takeout and I’m cutting the pizza up thinking, ‘You have no idea how much I want this pizza right now!’”
The former American Idol judge, who is now vegan, called that interaction his “biggest test,” adding, “I passed.”
After fellow America’s Got Talent judge Terry Crews suggested that Cowell could have licked his fingers in order to get a taste of some pizza, the X Factor alum clarified his stance on the popular food. “I don’t want to get the taste again,” he explained to Us, calling his diet “worth it.”
“Apart from physically, mentally I feel sharper. I feel better. It’s quite incredible,” he continued. “I can remember a year ago being here, two years ago, I wasn’t feeling myself and now I feel back to where I used to be.”
Still, the television personality playfully admitted that his physique doesn’t exactly rival that of Crews, 51. “Unfortunately, I felt great until Terry took his shirt off,” he quipped with a laugh.
Cowell has dropped around 20 pounds since adopting a plant-based diet in 2019 in order to keep up with his son. “When you’re 60, and you have a little boy, who, when he wakes up, is bouncing off the ceiling, it’s like, you’ve got to try and keep that energy yourself,” he told Us in September when asked about his motivation to slim down. “So that was my biggest thing, but changing my diet and everything else. I’ve got to play football with him. I’ve got to take him go-karting. So that was a much needed push.”
These days, in addition to playing with Eric, the television personality is gearing up for another season of America’s Got Talent, which will welcome Sofia Vergara as the newest judge. The Modern Family star, 47, is replacing Gabrielle Union and Julianne Hough, who both exited the competition series in November 2019 after one season. (Union, 47, alleged there had been a toxic work environment on the show’s set following her departure, which NBC denied.)
“I met Sofia three or four years ago and we really hit it off and we ended the meeting with, ‘Let’s agree that one day we’ll work on something together.’ That’s how well we got along,” Cowell told Us of the Chef actress earlier this month. “So when I heard Sofia’s name was in the mix, I was so excited.”
America’s Got Talent returns to NBC for season 15 in May.
With reporting by Nicole Pajer
