[Red Moon]

I WANT MORE MONEY SAYS COWELL

Simon Cowell is worth a fortune, has homes in London, LA and Malaga, owns 7 cars and bosses two of the world's top TV shows. What more could he ever want?

HE'S a multi-millionaire with a model girlfriend and has the power to make or break future showbiz stars.

He owns a £7.5million home in West London's exclusive Holland Park, a £20million mansion in Beverly Hills, a villa in Malaga, seven luxury cars and appears in two of the most successful TV shows in Britain and the States.

Yet there's something missing that stops Simon Cowell from being truly happy.

"More money," says the man who dominates our screens every Saturday in the X-Factor. "If it could pour on me every day like a shower, I would lie in that shower for hours. I'm very motivated by money. I just love it."

That passion for cash has driven Cowell from working as a teenage post boy at EMI Records to become the brains behind 60 million record sales and 25 No1 singles.

"I don't need to work but I love it," he admits. "I'll only retire when I lose the plot.

There's an awful lot more I want to do - more TV shows, new artists. What I'm good at is understanding what's going to be popular. The minute I lose that is the time to retire."

Next year he will branch into movies, producing two music-based films. He's never done it before, but that doesn't scare him .

"I hire the best people, it's as simple as that," he says. "The best writers, the best directors. It's the same way I make records."

At 46, with his fortune made and settled in a three-year relationship, surely Cowell's next step is to get married and start a family. But not if he can help it.

He is adamant he has no intention of tying the knot or becoming a father, even though Terri Seymour, 31, his girlfriend of three years, is desperate for a baby.

"I told her to buy a terrapin because they can be affectionate and we'll have a little pet, but it didn't go down well," he says.

"I said to her 'the problem is I'm 46 and you know what my work schedule is like. There is no place in my life right now for a kid'.

"I love kids, I'm great with them. I just wouldn't be very good with my own. That's where we have a big difference. She loves them but I can't see how I could live my life with a child."

Even so, Simon says the relationship is strong. "We get on well," he says. "We still have things to talk to each other about. You know a relationship is over when you have nothing to say to each other, but I don't think that's the case."

During the first series of X-Factor in 2004, Terri worked alongside Simon as a presenter on the ITV2 spin-off The Xtra Factor. This time she's staying alone at Simon's Los Angeles home while working on two other programmes over there.

"She's not involved this time round because she's got too much work on," says Simon.

"And because I'm always backwards and forwards to America, I see her all the time anyway."

They talk every day on the phone but surely he must be lonely without his girlfriend?

He smiles. "I am so busy at work that I'm getting home exhausted at 10pm and falling asleep so I'm not missing anyone."

It can't be easy being his girlfriend. He is obsessed with work, refuses to marry or have kids, takes his mum on holiday and lives 5,000 miles away half the year.

And what woman in her right mind would tolerate a bloke who works with his stunning ex-girlfriend, especially when she turns up half naked?

Yet that is what Terri has put up with for the last three years.

She must be trusting because when Simon works on the X-Factor, he is joined by his ex-lover, pop star Sinitta.

During filming in Spain, she surprised Simon by arriving on set wearing nothing but her bikini. Surely Terri was upset?

"I told her in advance that Sinitta was going to be there but she knows what I'm like," he says.

"Looking back, it might be unusual my ex-girlfriend is walking round in high heels and a gold bikini," he concedes with a cheeky grin. "It was her idea but I loved it.

"She has an amazing body and I can't change the way she looks.

"She's married and her husband obviously doesn't mind us working together or she wouldn't have been on her own with me in Spain."

Simon, who has slept with dozens of women, remains close to Sinitta and another ex-girlfriend, former Page 3 girl Jackie St Claire.

"Terri's used to it," he says. "She knows these girls have always been around and always will be.

"Sinitta and Jackie are my family now. I don't think of them as ex-girlfriends anymore. They are an extension of my life.

"It must be infuriating but I'd never change because my ex-girlfriends are so close I couldn't imagine life without them."

Simon admits that as a boyfriend he's far from perfect. "I have eyes," he says. "Of course I'm going to acknowledge a gorgeous girl. Whether you take it further is a whole different ball game. If a cute girl walks in then I'm going to flirt with her. I would expect Terri to do the same. She's a good-looking girl. She gets hit on all the time but I don't get jealous.

"I've always thought if someone is going to leave you for another guy, then they'll leave. Are there better-looking guys than me? Yes, a lot.

"When you appear on TV you do become more attractive to girls. Even Les Dennis can pull because he is on TV. That's the way it is. But it doesn't make you better looking."

Simon looks good in his usual blue jeans and black sweater. Last year he experimented with a new look but it didn't work and he has reverted back to his old style.

"I asked a stylist to buy me some new clothes because I loathe shopping," he says. "When I saw what she'd brought back I was horrified - velvet jackets, green sweaters. I felt a right idiot. I sent the whole lot back.

"I'm not conscious about 'a look'. I just wear what I feel comfortable in. I buy the same things because I'm lazy. If I see some jeans I like, I'll buy 15 pairs. If I see a nice sweater, I'll buy 20. That's why everything looks the same."

He's relieved that jokes about his infamous high-waisted trousers have died down.

"It took a while but they've stopped now," he says. "I just got into a habit of pulling up my trousers too high. Then I saw a picture of myself and thought 'Christ, I look ridiculous'."

He looks young for 46 and his thick mop of brown hair shows only the slightest hint of grey. "Everybody asks if I dye my hair but I never have and never would," he says. "It's what I've inherited from my parents. My mum is in her 70s and looks terrific."

He is close to his mum, who is a fan of his shows but a stickler for good manners. "She used to get bothered and phone to say 'You were rude to those people,' he says.

"But I told her there's nothing I can do about it. That's the way it is. If you come to an audition in real life that's what they are like.

"She once hoped I would marry and have a family. Every mother wants to see her son happy. But I am quite happy. The only thing that would make me happier is more money."

Source:Daily Mirror