Now that Simon Cowell is engaged to girlfriend Mezghan Hussainy, Paula Abdul says the American Idol judge might show a softer side once he's married.
"That's left to be determined!" Abdul said backstage at the LG Electronics gift lounge at the Tony Awards. "I know Simon so well and honest to God, I think he's at that stage in his life where he's a grown-up Simon now, making him a great and loving husband. But he still has that little bad boy in him."
Cowell and Hussainy have been dating for nearly a year and met several years ago on Idol, where she's a makeup artist. When news broke in February that the couple were engaged, Abdul says she was shocked.
"It took me about 12 days to take my jaw off the ground and put it back up," says Abdul of hearing the news. "But Mezghan is a lovely girl and I've known her for a long time. They make a great couple and I'm happy for them."
Not that the blunt and often critical Cowell has gushed to Abdul about his fiancée yet.
"That would be an alter ego of Simon to gush about her. That is not part of his DNA," Abdul says. "However, I know that he's in a happy place so that makes me happy. He would never gush about anyone unless it was about himself and that's why we love Simon."
Simon Cowell scowling – typical. Simon Cowell blushing? Indeed.
The famously cantankerous American Idol judge squirmed in his seat on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Monday as the host dissected reports of Cowell's engagement to Idol makeup artist Mezhgan Hussainy.
"Are rumors you're engaged true?" Leno asked. Cowell took a moment and responded carefully, "Are they true? Well, I do have somebody in my life now, Jay, yes. And I kinda made a decision this year to make somebody happy."
As the audience cheered, Leno asked about the huge ring Hussainy has been sporting on her left hand.
"I thought she broke her arm," Leno joked. Cowell responded, "It's quite a big one, yes."
When Leno called Cowell out for turning red, Cowell confessed, "I am blushing." Leno asked, "Where did you, or may have, gotten engaged?" Cowell said, "I find this very uncomfortable. I was asleep, I think. No, look, I bought her the ring in London."
Later, Leno spotted Hussainy, 36, in the audience and invited her to come on stage to join Cowell, 50. The pair looked giddy and comfortable with each other, said a witness.
As Cowell and Leno joked about what role, if any, Leno would have in Cowell's future wedding – Cowell suggested Leno could be a flower girl – Cowell said that he would want a wedding "in the next 10 years" and on the subject of having children, added, "I'm kind of torn because I'm a bit too old to have kids, but then again I think it would be important to have a lot of me's around in the future."
This may come as a shocker to many American Idol rejects, but Simon Cowell is now happier than he's been in years.
And now we know why. He's engaged to the show's makeup artist, Mezghan Hussainy, a source who knows the couple said during a recent interview.
Hussainy, 36, has been sporting a large diamond ring on her left hand lately, reigniting speculation that the fickle judge had finally found his match.
Cowell, 50, and Hussainy "are very suited," Cowell's U.K. rep Max Clifford said last week. "She is someone who is independent and says what she thinks and feels, and he likes that. He's probably the happiest I have ever known him in the nine years I've been working with him."
Added Clifford, "They have known each other for years. They've actually been going out together for the last year. She knows him; she's been around him. So, she knows the person he is, and he knows the person she is. That's why it works so well."
Now that Simon Cowell is engaged to girlfriend Mezghan Hussainy, Paula Abdul says the American Idol judge might show a softer side once he's married.
