Waterman: 'I made Simon Cowell'

Pete Waterman has claimed that he is responsible for Simon Cowell's success.

The music mogul insists that he forced the X Factor host to come out of his shell and make the bold and derogatory comments for which he his famed.

Waterman told The Sun: "When we did that first day’s filming of Pop Idol, none of us could have realised that it would ever become the biggest television show on the planet.

"It was a big shambles! If I had not known Simon, I am sure it wouldn’t have worked - because I’m the one who got Simon to be Simon.

"I called him in and said, 'Sorry Simon, if I came to you with a piece of c***, you would tell me it was a piece of c***. You’ve always got an opinion about everything and now, suddenly, you haven’t got an opinion'."

He added: "He followed me around for so many years. If you go back to the 1980s, wherever I was, Simon was always somewhere very close behind.

"I gave him his first Christmas number one, some of his biggest acts and made him into a TV star."