Simon Cowell knew he broke his back the very moment that he crashed on his e-bike last year. There wasn't a doubt in his mind.
The "America's Got Talent" judge spoke to "Extra" on Feb. 24, which marked his first time addressing the August 2020 accident, save for a few tweets in the aftermath.
"It could have been a lot worse," he contends. "When I saw the X-ray, I really nearly could have smashed my spine to pieces, so I literally wouldn't have been able to walk."
In speaking about the moment of the accident, Simon said, "I knew I'd broken my back the minute I landed. It was really, really kind of sudden and it hurt."
In a moment like that, you're not supposed to move, but those thoughts weren't running through his mind.
"I was thinking, 'I've got to get back into the house because I can't lie there'… and made myself kind of get carried into my bedroom, which is right there at the beginning of the house, and I'm lying there and I'm kind of passing out… It was surreal," he said.
Simon, who ended up enduring a six-hour surgery to repair his back and later got $112,000 in new teeth, credited his longtime partner, Lauren Silverman, with nursing him along.
"She was amazing. Both her and [son] Eric, they were like my support. I couldn't have gotten through it without them, so we got closer," the mogul said.
Still, his ailing life at home was no picnic.
"The hardest thing was, and I said this to Lauren when I came out of the hospital… I was so embarrassed about coming home looking about 100 because I couldn't walk, and I have these metal rods in my back and these screws," he said.
Simon said he remembered telling Lauren that he didn't know what he would say to their 7-year-old son, Eric.
"[Lauren] obviously said something to him because he came in… and I was lying in bed and he said, 'Daddy, you're like Ironman,' and I thought that was the sweetest thing and it meant a lot," Simon recalled.
While not being able to be a completely hands-on dad was hard, Simon said the worst part of the recovery was "the helplessness."
"I've never been in this situation in my life where you literally can't move," he said. "The pain was off the charts… But you've got to stay positive… I made a promise to myself I'd be fitter than I was before I had the accident. Sure enough, that's what happened."