Simon Cowell thinks his son saved him from his workaholic lifestyle.
Simon Cowell's son has changed his life
The 63-year-old music mogul has Eric, eight, with Lauren Silverman, and Simon has credited his son with helping him to overcome his work obsession.
Simon - who has enjoyed huge success with TV shows such as 'The X Factor' and 'America's Got Talent' - shared: "Before Eric, my life was 99 percent work - I was obsessed with it.
"I got to that point where everything was about, ‘If you’re not rating against this then you’re a failure’ and I stopped enjoying what I was doing and I was miserable the whole time.
"I was obsessed with beating the competition. I took it to a ridiculous level and I would get really down about that stuff, to the point I was depressed."
Simon admits that his TV ventures used to consume most of his thinking.
He told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: "I’m not a wall puncher but I’d tear my hair out, then be sitting there at 4am saying, ‘What am I going to do?’ - coming up with ridiculous ideas like the six-chair challenge.
"You add new elements, then change something else, then something else, then the next thing you know, you’ve got this Frankenstein’s monster."
But Simon now concedes that Eric has totally transformed his life and his priorities in recent years.
The TV star said: "I was really unhappy. But now Eric is around, I don’t work through the night anymore.
"If he hadn’t come along, God knows what would have happened.
"It’s sad now to think of me at my age, still working till 4am, obsessed with the TV ratings.
"The thought of it - I can’t deal with that."
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