Simon Cowell breaks silence on Liam Payne’s tragic death

Simon Cowell recently broke his silence on Liam Payne’s tragic death for the first time.

The America Got Talent judge explained how he dealt with the grief after the late singer’s demise.

Simon, who discovered Liam during auditions for The X Factor in 2010, revealed that he had to “disappear” after his death.

“What do you do in a situation like that? It was so bad, I was in pieces. There were so many things going on in my head,” said the 66-year-old while speaking on the Daily Mail’s Tales From the Celebrity Trenches podcast.

Simon added, “I literally just disappeared somewhere for a week to think everything through because I knew I was really, really struggling.”

The American TV personality shared that the timing of Liam’s death made the tragedy even more painful because Simon was already working closely with young potentials at the time.

He was filming Netflix series The Next Act which was going to search the next-world dominating boyband just like One Direction where his “responsibility” was to mentor young hopeful stars.

For the unversed, Liam, alongside Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan, didn’t win the X Factor, but they were quickly signed to Simon's Syco record label, and eventually achieved global success with songs, What Makes You Beautiful and Best Song Ever.

RELATED: Simon Cowell sparks rage with new One Direction-like band reveal