Simon Cowell makes rare red-carpet appearance with fiancée Lauren Silverman and son Eric

Simon Cowell was joined by his family as they posed together on the red carpet ahead of the America’s Got Talent live final on Tuesday, September 13.

The AGT judge, 63, beamed proudly as he stood with fiancée Lauren Silverman, 45, and their son Eric, eight, at the Sheraton Pasadena Hotel in California.

In the snaps, socialite Silverman can be seen placing one arm protectively around Cowell, while her other rests on young Eric.

The images are a far cry from the days when Cowell was once a proud bachelor and seemed unlikely to settle down.

That all changed when he met his socialite other half in 2004.

A slight snag, however, was that she was still married to real-estate mogul Andrew Silverman, a good friend of Cowell’s.

The Silvermans finalised their divorce in 2013 — the same year Lauren and Cowell went public with their relationship and revealed they were expecting a child together.

Eric was born in 2014 and Cowell cited him as a huge part of why he decided to finally pop the question to Silverman last Christmas.

“We were in the same house for over a year and I thought, ‘Well, actually, we get on really, really well,’ he told The Sun.

“And for Eric, as he gets older, he will be asked more and more about his parents, and I thought it was the right thing to do for him.

“I also just couldn’t see myself ever dating anyone again. The idea of going out on a first date now is too weird. My mum and dad had an amazing marriage and I used to call them best friends, and I think that’s a big part of it.”

In February, the Britain’s Got Talent judge admitted he enlisted the help of his son to plan his romantic proposal.

“One hundred per cent he had to coach me,” Cowell told Entertainment Tonight. “And we planned it. He was a big part of it.”

He added: “Family is everything and that is what I kind of took away from lockdown.”