This is a British gossip story with some good tidbits about what a manwhore Simon Cowell is, and how Danii Minogue was potentially cheating on her partner with him. We knew some of this about Simon, but I still found some of these details salacious. First off, some background! While serving as judges on the UK version of X Factor, Sharon Osbourne and Dannii Minogue had a well-publicized feud and Sharon ended up quitting in 2007*. Sharon was a judge from 2004 until 2007, when Dannii came on. (Sharon admitted that she left because of Dannii, and Sharon’s mouthy daughter, Kelly, even called Dannii “the devil.”) Dannii served on the panel from 2007 to 2010, when she took time off to have a baby with her then-partner, ex-professional rugby player Kris Smith.

Well a new book by an “unauthorized” Simon Cowell biographer, whom Cowell actually met with and helped with the book, alleges that Cowell and Dannii had an affair during their time on X-Factor together. According to Sharon Osbourne, Cowell was also allegedly sleeping with a bunch of other chicks while he was with his then-fiance, Mezhgan Hussainy. (They’ve since split up, and Simon bought Mezghan an $8 million mansion for her troubles.)

This is complicated, but when I read this story I remembered reading that Dannii Minogue just announced a breakup with her partner of four years, Kris Smith, earlier this month. Isn’t that a coincidence? If Dannii was having an affair with her boss Simon during her relationship with Kris or even prior to their relationship (Kris and Dannii got together in 2008), and Kris didn’t know about it, that might prompt a breakup, right?

Here’s part of the story from The Daily Mail. Of course Sharon Osbourne is pissed that Simon and Dannii were f’ing, as she so eloquently puts it, but I don’t care about her at all:

[Sharon Osbourne] is fuming that [Simon Cowell] is dragging her into a ‘world of debauchery’, and has blasted Dannii Minogue for her sole reason of taking part in the show as being to ‘f*** Simon’.

In a new tell-all book, Simon insinuates Sharon left because of his romance with Dannii, but the mother-of-three insists it was because the Australian singer became ‘unbearable’.

Sharon told The Mirror: ‘Dannii wanted to be the mistress of Simon – and the mistress of X Factor.

‘But I didn’t leave the show because Simon and Dannii were f******, I left because she became unbearable. She started bossing everyone around, even the producers.’

Sharon insists the affair ‘wasn’t a secret’ and is bemused why it was kept private as he had already split from Terri Seymour – whose connections to Cowell later landed her a job on US show Extra.

She added: ‘All Dannii wanted to do was f*** Simon Cowell. That’s why she was on the show.’

The 59-year-old also claims Simon was seeing an additional two girls during his romance with fiancée Mezhgan Hussainy.

The other ladies of his affections are glamour model Jasmine Lennard – a former contestant on Rachel Hunter’s reality show Make Me A Supermodel – and make-up artist Julia Carta.

Sharon said that while she’s not ‘Simon’s mother’ and the book is ‘none of my business’, she is annoyed to be ‘dragged into his little world of debauchery’ years after leaving X Factor.

The biography, by Tom Bower, is said to be unauthorised despite Simon inviting the investigative journalist aboard his private yacht and providing an access-all-areas pass on his debut season of X Factor USA.

Even Cowell’s own spokesman criticised his decision to work with Bower.

Max Clifford said: ‘My attitude is you don’t talk to someone like Bower.

‘He’s only looking for controversial stuff.’

Sharon claims to have been approached by Bower too, but refused to contribute.

[From The Daily Mail]

You can read more on The Mirror’s site as well, but it’s a lot of information and sifting through Sharon Osbourne’s bitching. It’s possible that Simon and Dannii were only together in 2007 and that once their relationship ended she took up with Kris. The article in The Mirror doesn’t suggest she was cheating on anyone, because she was technically single in 2007 when she first did the show. It seems too coincidental that Dannii and her partner broke up just prior to this news getting out. We’ll know more about these rumors when the book comes out on Friday.

Oh and Kaiser wanted me to mention that all the drama with Cheryl Cole getting fired from X-Factor and no longer speaking to Simon Cowell could possibly have something to do with an affair gone wrong.

*Note that The Mail has Sharon leaving X-Factor in 2008. She is listed on the Wiki page for X-Factor as being a judge from 2004-2007. 2008 is probably the air date.

Dannii and her partner, Kris Smith. Credit: WENN.com

Simon and his ex fiance, Simon Cowell and Mezghan Hussainy