News of Simon Cowell's engagement was pretty shocking to many of his fans. Sure, the America's Got Talent judge has been with Lauren Silverman for more than a decade, but he's managed to keep some of his universal bachelor flair regardless.
Now sources close to the couple are saying if it was up to Simon, things would have stayed that way. They indicate that Lauren had grown sick of waiting to get married, especially since Simon had previously proposed to her a year after their 7-year-old son, Eric, was born. It appears she may have posed an ultimatum, causing Simon to change his mind.
Other sources are saying this isn't what changed Simon's mind. They believe that spending time as a family during the health crisis, coupled with his scary 2020 accident that nearly left him paralyzed, has changed his perspective on how he wants to spend his time and whom he wants to spend it with.
A source told the New York Post that the stress in Simon and Lauren's relationship shifted.
"Around Christmas I know that she was talking about it, and he was refusing," the source said.
"They had reached a difficult point in the relationship — you might call it a crisis. There was misery.
"Perhaps she had made it clear that she was not going to stick around unless they got married."
The source also shared that Simon had presented Lauren with an engagement ring a year after their now 7-year-old son, Eric, was born. That would have been 2015, meaning it was 11 years after the two had reportedly started seeing each other. Lauren was, at the time, married to her first husband, real-estate mogul Andrew Silverman, who was a close friend of Simon's. The affair didn't come to light until 2013, when Lauren got pregnant with Eric, leading her and Andrew to divorce.
Simon may have quietly given her a ring at that time, but he was in no rush to get to the altar.
"I know that Simon got her an engagement ring about a year after the pregnancy was announced … but he then put it away in a safe and made it clear that he didn't want to get married after all," the source shared.
That same year, Simon commented on why he wasn't into the idea of marriage.
"When you get into a rut, it gets boring," he said.
"No matter how big your house is, you are going to end up on the same sofa, in the same bed or in the same room as a person, you are going to get bored. It's a boring routine. Being on my own is the best thing in the world. It's like breathing in oxygen."
Lauren has done her share of waiting and is now fed up. "She's a nice middle-class girl and she always wanted to get married," the source said.
"Her mum said that she trusted Simon to 'do the right thing' before Eric was born. Well, she's been waiting a long time — and so has Lauren."
There's also Simon's past behavior to take into account. Not only did he have a revolving door of women in his life, but the ones he spent time dedicated to also hit a wall when it came to a marital commitment. When television host Terri Seymour wanted marriage and a family after four years together, Simon "advised her to get a turtle instead."
The sources also believe that providing for Eric has a lot to do with how Simon has changed his mind about marriage.
"Everything he does now is about Eric and his legacy," a colleague remarked.
"He wants to give Eric legitimacy."
In securing that family and that legacy, Simon has made a number of concessions. He reportedly doesn't have a cellphone and can only be contacted through Lauren. She's known to carry his cigarettes at parties so he doesn't stray too far from her.
Lauren can't always be around, however. Every other week, she flies from their London or Malibu home to New York City, where she spends a week with her 16-year-old son, Adam, whom she shares with Andrew.
"It's already a funny, slightly semi-detached dynamic," a friend shared.
Others believe Simon has genuinely changed his mind because of spending time with his family during lockdown and having nearly become paralyzed in a 2020 electric bike accident.
"Like everyone, we were in lockdown for a long time and that's when you realize whether or not you actually enjoy each other’s company or not," Simon said of the time.
"And we really really did … the romance is still alive. We're closer than ever."
