Simon Cowell Admits He Turned Down ‘A Lot of Money’ By Refusing to Judge a Couple’s Unusual Proposition

There’s one talent Simon Cowell refuses to judge because it’s so inappropriate.

On a recent episode of the podcast How to Fail, the America’s Got Talent judge recounted how he almost became The X-Rated Factor judge during a particularly crazy interaction with a fan.

“One time — it’s a true story — I was in a restaurant and this guy comes up to me and he said, ‘You know I love your show. Would you take a picture?’” the 65-year-old Cowell recalled.

He took the photo with the fan, who then proposed an offer that was hard for the Brit to refuse.

He said, “‘This is my wife. Nice to meet you. Um, would you judge us having sex?’” Cowell said, “‘Are you winding me up?’ They went, ‘No, we’ll pay you.’

“It actually was a lot of money. I thought, ‘Do I? No, I just can’t do it.’ It was $150,000.”

That’s not the only bizarre proposition he’s gotten from fans.

“People used to ask me to be rude to them,” the music producer shared.

“I mean, literally they would come up and say you know, particularly in America, ‘Will you be rude to me?’ and I’m like ‘No!’”

Shockingly, Cowell also claimed that he’s very shy, and that being a celebrity actually helps him overcome his bashfulness. “I can’t go to a pre-party. It’s the worst thing in the world making small talk with people I don’t know.”

But being famous means there’s automatically something to talk about. “Instantly, they know you, you’re talking about something I like — which is the shows, the artists, whatever — so it kind of helped me with my shyness,” says Simon.