Simon Cowell regrets his ‘disgusting’ reaction to Susan Boyle on ‘BGT’

Simon Cowell is looking back at one of Britain’s Got Talent’s most unforgettable moments with serious regret.

Appearing on the debut episode of Celebrity Trenches on May 6, the music mogul admitted he and his fellow judges were “awful” in the way they reacted to Susan Boyle before her now-iconic 2009 audition.

“I look back and I just think, ‘my God we look so awful, horrible,’” Cowell, 66, said. “I actually don’t think we look bad enough. I think we were even worse than that and they went, ‘you look awful.’”

Cowell was referring to the visible skepticism shared between himself, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan before Boyle stunned the audience with her powerful rendition of I Dreamed a Dream from Les Misérables.

“It was a bit of a wake up call. You can’t judge a book by its cover,” admitted Cowell. “We do look disgusting…”

The audition remains one of reality television’s most talked-about moments, catapulting Boyle to global fame almost overnight.

Boyle herself has previously spoken about the painful experience, admitting she felt deeply judged when she first stepped onto the stage. “It felt quite suffocating, almost as though I was an act in a freak show, and that hurt,” she told the Irish Mirror.

Despite the difficult start, Boyle had the last word. She finished as runner-up that season and went on to become an international sensation, with a career that has reportedly earned her an estimated £30 million.