After a moment of silence, he regained his composure, and started to talk about the death of his mum 16 years later, which had sent him on a terrifying “downward spiral”.

“Everything material meant nothing to me at that point. I was desperately unhappy,” he lamented.

He added that despite staying awake until 7:00 or 8:00am to get his work done, he “wasn’t particularly enjoying” his career at the time and was using it to fill a void.

“I became a ridiculous workaholic… I was very successful but I really, really wasn’t happy,” Simon explained.

He reflected on how his father might have felt about his success on TV talent shows such as X-Factor, where his notoriously withering comments towards contestants who didn’t make the grade earned him the nickname “Mr. Nasty”.

“I think he would’ve got a kick out of seeing me on a TV show and would have found the whole thing really, really funny,” he exclaimed.

“I maintained that amazing relationship with [my parents] right up until they passed away, they were my best friends… that’s how I feel about [my child] Eric now,” he concluded, describing their father-son bond as “pure love”.