Simon Cowell's charity work has helped him find balance.

Simon Cowell

Simon Cowell

The 58-year-old music mogul - who has four-year-old son Eric with partner Lauren Silverman - helps out with a number of good causes and he admitted seeing what they do first hand has put his own problems in perspective.

He said: "Stuff that used to bother me, you now go, 'What am I even worried about? I don't have to deal with what these people have to deal with everyday.' "

Children's hospice charity Together For Short Lives is particularly important to the 'X Factor' judge, though he "dreaded" his first visit to one of their facilities because he doesn't think he'd be able to cope in a similar situation.

He told Variety: "I just had this image in my mind, it was going to be gray and dark, and it's like, 'Oh god, I'm not sure I can do this.'

"How they managed to make this place happy is quite unbelievable. I can't imagine how these families cope with that, I genuinely don't."

Simon feels "frustrated" that he's unable to help more than he already does but he knows even raising awareness of smaller charities is invaluable to them.

He said: "It's frustrating because there's always something more you can and should do, but hopefully what we end up doing will make a difference to some of these charities.

"When you're well-known, you can make a bit of a difference.

"Most of the charity work we do are with the smaller charities, who actually do need the cash, but they also need the awareness."

And the 'America's Got Talent' star has learned a lot about various issues, so he's keen to spread the knowledge.

He said: "I got to know about a lot of things I didn't know before, and then you think, 'In my position, I must be able to do more to get more people to know about it.' "


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