Simon Cowell’s friendship with Lucy Spraggan after X Factor
The singer's X Factor experience was short-lived, but she had built such a strong bond with the music mogul he walked her down the aisle at her wedding.
Simon Cowell has walked down the aisle — to give away former X Factor contestant Lucy Spraggan at her wedding.
The singer competed on the ITV talent show in 2012, but pulled out of the competition due to what would be revealed to be extremely traumatic circumstances. The guitar-playing folk singer who wrote her own songs did not fit the archetype of an X Factor contestant and went on to sign with Columbia Records in 2013, not Cowell's label Syco.
But 10 years on from her appearance on the show, unusual circumstances brought Spraggan and Cowell together. And they are now such close friends she asked him to give her away. Here is how the pair met, and went on to form a strong bond.
Brief encounter
Spraggan, 32, got through to the live rounds of The X Factor in 2012 after auditioning with her own original song and playing the guitar. She was mentored by Tulisa Contostavlos, but pulled out in week five.
At the time it was announced in an official statement that illness was the reason Spraggan had left the show. Cowell was not a judge on the show that year, but he is the creator of The X Factor.
Lucy Spraggan's rape ordeal
In 2023 Spraggan revealed the reason she quit the show was because in fact because she was raped by a hotel porter following a night out with friends.
Spraggan was raped by the man who broke into her room after a night out for her friend and fellow contestant Rylan’s 24th birthday. The porter was eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Spraggan commended Rylan for his support on the night of the attack and said she believed his actions were crucial to her attacker’s conviction. She waived her right to anonymity to share details of her experience and said she was made to feel like a "corporate problem" by producers of the show, and her mental health suffered greatly.
In an interview this year, Rylan got emotional about his friend's ordeal. He told The Guardian: "This is so weird we’re having this conversation because for 11 years I’ve kept it all quiet. I’m getting emotional. That was a really, really tough time. It was horrendous and I’ve still not spoken about it because it’s not my story to tell, even though I was part of it."
Simon Cowell reached out
After Spraggan went public with her rape ordeal, Cowell reached out to her and simply said: "I am sorry." Spraggan revealed in an interview on BBC Breakfast that he got in touch through their publicists and then spoke to her on the phone to issue her a personal apology for what she had been through.
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She said: “It makes me emotional now, 'cause no one else said sorry. He wasn’t even on my year, he wasn’t even a judge. And he still as a human being gave me everything that I needed in two words.”
Simon Cowell friendship formed
Following Cowell's apology the pair became friends, with Spraggan attending dinners at his home and even days out together.
She told the Metro in June 2023: "I never even met him on the X Factor because he wasn’t a judge that year. Our paths met 10 years later and I believe that’s when they were supposed to meet. I know him as the guy I go and have dinner with at his house, who I’ve been to a bloody petting zoo with. I feel really grateful to be championed by someone who is so supportive and such a good friend."
Simon Cowell's role at Lucy Spraggan's wedding
Spraggan first married ex-wife Georgina Gordon in June 2016. They split in November 2019 after three years of marriage. She found love again with a long-term friend Emilia Smith, 34, and they got engaged to be married.
Spraggan revealed to The Sun's Fabulous magazine she was a guest at Cowell's home when she asked him if he would give her away at her wedding.
She explained: "We’d been staying at Simon and [his fiancée] Lauren [Silverman]’s house for a few days. One morning, Simon was about to get in the sea and I said, ‘Will you give me away?’ He replied: ‘Yeah!’ He went off for a swim and when he came back, he said, ‘I’d absolutely love to. It would be an honour.' "
Cowell's bond with Spraggan
Spraggan has now wed Smith. Cowell confessed to Hello magazine he was "nervous" and "proud, happy and emotional" walking her down the aisle. But he also spoke of their "special bond" since becoming friends.
He said: "The best way of describing our relationship is that it feels like we've been friends for life. Being asked to walk her down the aisle made me realise the significance and importance of that role. And throughout the day, I was thinking even though it's been a relatively short time, we do feel like family, and we share a very special bond."
