Simon Cowell says he is 'not proud' of how he treated contestants on The X Factor and vows to 'do things differently' with his new band after Liam Payne's death

It's Simon Cowell, but not as we know and arguably love him. 

Indeed, the acerbic and frequently soul-crushing critiques that somewhat ironically earned him millions of fans are now a thing of the past and the man everyone loved to hate has a more reflective approach to emerging talent.  

'I did realise I’ve probably gone too far,' Cowell told the Sunday Times Culture of his notoriously scathing appraisals on Pop Idol and The X Factor. 'What can I say? I’m sorry. I’m not proud of it. 

'But then again, the upside is that it made the shows really popular worldwide.' 

The music mogul, 66, is currently hedging his bets on December 10, the 'talented and likeable' seven-piece band he created on recently released Netflix show, Simon Cowell: The Next Act. 

The six-part series gave viewers a glimpse behind the curtain at the day-to-day demands of his job, the unglamorous finer details so often overlooked on The X Factor.  

'I wanted people to see how difficult this is, how stressful it can be,' he explained. 'That it’s not easy. There are no guarantees. And to follow me on my path and see how I do my job, because I’ve never shown that side of it. 

'There are a lot of people who think I just sit behind a desk all year, pressing red and gold buzzers.' 

Cowell was putting his new band together when Liam Payne, a prominent member of the most successful act to emerge from The X Factor - fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. 

Payne and his four One Direction bandmates had been brought together by Cowell and his fellow judges on the show, a purpose-built boyband who went on to earn the sort of hysterical fandom not seen since Beatlemania. 

And the talent show mogul admits the singer's tragic death, aged just 31, left him questioning whether or not he should persevere with December 10 and a pre-arranged trip to Miami, where they were to have vocal training.

'It hit me so hard,' he recalled. 'Outside of my family, this affected me more than anything I’ve experienced. You’re just not prepared for it. 

'It’s only when it happens that you realise how you feel about someone. And I was absolutely in bits.' 

'I said, "I’m not sure I can carry on." I couldn’t make up my mind. And then I remembered the promise I’d made to the boys, which was, "I’m taking you to America."

The tragedy - Cowell admits he had lost touch with Payne during his final years - has also prompted a different approach to after-care.  

'You can’t keep track of every single artist,' he said. 'You sign them on and then sometimes you keep a relationship, sometimes the relationship drifts. 

'With these boys, I’m going to try as much as I can - through them, their parents, my team - just to always, always know.' 

Cowell came under fire last month when he was questioned about duty of care protocols on The X Factor, saying a 'vast majority' of contestants 'got what they wanted, which was fame and money.'

He told The Rest In Entertainment podcast: 'I did everything I possibly could, but not everything worked out the way we wanted to.

'The vast majority of people who came on the show, they made a lot of money and got what they wanted, which was fame.'

'Certain people they've just got it in for me, and there's nothing I can do about that. We put someone on the show, they signed up to what they knew the show was about.'

'Over time, whether it's discussions about mental health and duty of care, that has become much more something we think about, talk about and acknowledge.'

Created by Cowell in 2004, The X Factor helped to launch the careers of some of the UK's biggest stars, including Little Mix, Olly Murs and Alexandra Burke.

But behind closed doors, the ITV show was far from a rosy experience for many of its contestants, with some claiming that bosses convinced them to fake certain moments in a bid to boost ratings.

While the series pulled in a record 18 million viewers at its peak, in later years it came under fire for manufacturing results and storylines, and was quietly placed on hiatus in 2018.