Simon is my neighbour & more than a colleague...it would be awkward if he fired me

They've worked together since 2007, so it's perhaps no surprise that Amanda Holden's friendship with Britain's Got Talent boss Simon Cowell extends far beyond the judging panel.

- NICOLA METHVEN

As the show returns for its 17th series tonight, she says they now hang out regularly at weekends.

And Simon, it seems, only got a rural retreat in the Cotswolds because she told him and fiancee Lauren Silverman they simply had to have one. "I see him most weekends in the Cotswolds, so it would be very uncomfortable for him to not employ me." Amanda laughs.

"For years I was saying, 'you need to come to the Cotswolds - this is the place you can switch off and take your eyelashes off!" And Lauren was very, very keen. When they found somewhere I was delighted. They are super-happy Amanda and her talent manager husband Chris Hughes - who counts Simon, 64, as a client have long had an association with the area, which is where Amanda's grandparents lived.

She says Simon, who got engaged to American Lauren, 46, in 2021, is happier now than ever.

"I think his family life is happy, he's super-secure with Lauren and their son Eric is gorgeous," she says.

"Simon doesn't have a phone, he doesn't pay attention to anything and I think that puts him in a bubble.

That's how he lives life, and that's much better for him." Yet Amanda isn't counting her chickens when it comes to the job contract, which is renewed annually.