And the internet is buzzing after his clapback.
Simon Cowell is finally responding to the growing wave of voices accusing him of playing a role in Liam Payne’s tragic death — and he’s not holding back.
On Rolling Stone Music Now, the 66-year-old X Factor creator was asked how he felt about people saying he pushed One Direction too hard, failed to protect them from fame, and ultimately contributed to Payne’s downward spiral.
Cowell didn’t mince words.
“I don’t read any of this stuff. If you did, you’d torture yourself,” he said.
“The idea that you’re responsible for someone’s life 10 years after signing them? You can’t do that.”
Liam Payne — who rose to global superstardom after X Factor formed One Direction in 2010 — died last October after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina with multiple substances in his system. He was just 31.
Cowell remembers him as the 16-year-old kid who auditioned twice… and the young man he met about a year before his death.
“I told him, ‘Music is not everything. Don’t let it run your life anymore. Find something else you love.’”
The comments that hit hardest?
The ones where Cowell quietly wonders if things could’ve been different.
“Could I have done anything more? What would have happened if he wasn’t in the band?”
But Cowell also says that when they last spoke, Liam seemed “in a really good place.”
“I wish I could turn back the clock, of course… but that day, I felt really good about him.”
A heartbreaking reminder: behind the fame, behind the headlines, these were real people — and the grief still lingers.
