Eric Cowell is the only child of Simon Cowell, one of the biggest names in television, and for years his father has said the boy will not inherit a penny of his fortune. He is 12 now, and that position has not changed. The money, Simon decided before Eric was even born, goes to charity.
Money is only one kind of inheritance, though, and it may be the smallest part of what his son has already been given. Before he finished primary school, Eric had a published book with his name on it and a televised moment on one of Britain’s biggest shows. His place inside his father’s working life was settled long before he was old enough to choose it.
His mother has spoken recently, in rare detail, about the scandal he was born into. Eric, meanwhile, has begun saying he wants to audition for his dad’s show. What he actually stands to inherit is a more interesting question than the one about the will.
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Who is Eric Cowell?
Eric Philip Cowell was born in New York City on February 14, 2014, the son of America’s Got Talent judge Simon Cowell and his fiancรฉe, Lauren Silverman. He was named after Simon’s father, Eric, who died in 1999.
Some quick facts:
- Full name: Eric Philip Cowell
- Born: February 14, 2014, in New York City
- Parents: Simon Cowell and Lauren Silverman
- Half-brother: Adam Silverman, eight years older, from Lauren’s first marriage
- Age: 12
Simon and Lauren kept their son out of view for most of his early years. That has changed as he has grown. He now appears on red carpets, across his parents’ social media, and in Simon’s Netflix series, Simon Cowell: The Next Act.
A co-author at six
In February 2020, Hachette Children’s Group announced a seven-book deal for a children’s series called Wishfits. Credited as co-author alongside Simon was Eric, who was six years old.
The books grew out of a game the two of them played at home, dreaming up the most unlikely hybrid animals they could imagine keeping as pets. The cast includes the Peep, a pig crossed with a sheep, and the Chimpanpoo, part chimpanzee and part poodle. A share of the proceeds went to two children’s hospice charities, Together for Short Lives and Shooting Star Children’s Hospices.
Eric was given his own quote in the announcement, which almost never happens. Nearly everything ever published about him is a parent describing him. Here he was, at six, in his own words:
“My favourite WISHFITS right now are probably the Snog and Dat and Cog and the Chimpanpoo. I really hope that one day I can meet them all.”
The golden buzzer that made history
In May 2024, the crowd at a Britain’s Got Talent taping began demanding a golden buzzer for a Japanese skipping group called Haribow. Every judge had already spent theirs for the series. None were left to give.
Simon turned to Eric, who was 10 and sitting close by, and let him press one anyway. It was the first audience golden buzzer in the show’s history.
“I thought I was going to get fired as it was so unexpected,” judge Amanda Holden wrote afterward, adding that even Simon looked “wobbled.”
A handful of viewers online reckoned the moment looked rehearsed. Either way, a 10-year-old who has never auditioned for anything was given one of the night’s biggest moments on a show his father created.
Will Eric Cowell inherit Simon Cowell’s money?
No. Simon Cowell has said again and again that his son will not inherit his fortune, which is estimated at roughly $600 million. Speaking to the Mirror in 2013, before Eric was born, he said the money would go to charity instead, explaining that he didn’t believe in handing wealth from one generation to the next.
He has held that line for more than a decade, softening only the edges of it. College will be paid for, he has said, and after that his son is on his own. The pledge has become one of the most repeated facts about the boy.
Money is the easiest part of any estate to give away. The harder kind of inheritance is the one Simon has spent twelve years building in plain sight.
Some of what Eric already has:
- A public profile assembled across a decade of red carpets, magazine features and a Netflix documentary appearance.
- A creative credit on a published book series, earned before he was seven.
- A televised moment on a show his father owns and judges.
- A way in. Eric has said he wants to audition for Britain’s Got Talent. He plays the drums, loves Green Day, and by his father’s account wants to front a rock band. In 2024, Simon refused to rule out the idea of his son one day sitting on the judging panel.
A bank balance is simple enough to keep from a child. A famous surname and a head start in the industry he wants to enter are a different matter, and Simon has not tried to keep those from him. The boy has been kept out of the cash and waved into nearly everything else.
None of this takes anything away from the relationship. By every account Simon is a devoted, hands-on father. Warmth was never the question, though. The advantages collecting around his son are, and those are the part no charity can be handed instead.
The scandal Eric was born into
The settled life Eric has now was built on a very public mess, one his mother has only lately begun to discuss plainly.
In 2013, Lauren Silverman was married to the property developer Andrew Silverman, a friend of Simon’s, when she became pregnant with Eric. The pregnancy pushed the relationship into the open. Andrew filed for divorce citing adultery, and for a time, as part of the fallout, Simon was barred from any contact with Lauren’s older son, Adam.
On the June 16, 2026 episode of the Happy Mum podcast, Lauren described that period in detail for the first time.
“It was the end of my marriage, obviously. It was one of the hardest times of my life.”
Then came a line that holds two opposite feelings at once:
“I don’t want to say regretful, because I don’t regret anything. Do I wish it had happened a different way? Of course I do.”
She said she went through the pregnancy in fight-or-flight, on the cover of magazines wherever she went, her main concern shielding Adam from the noise. She was also certain of where it was heading, telling the host she had always known Simon was the person she wanted to spend her life with. The years since have cooled things down. She and Andrew, she said, get on well now.
What comes next
Simon and Lauren got engaged on Christmas Eve in 2021 and have not yet married, though Lauren took the Cowell name during Simon’s 65th birthday in 2024 and told the Daily Mail the following year that it came down to the whole family sharing one name.
For Eric, ordinary life still happens in the gaps. He plays the drums, kicks a ball around the countryside near the family home, and spends his father’s days off alongside a man who calls him his “barometer” and watches his face during live shows to read whether an act is working.
The money was decided long ago, and Simon has never hidden where it goes. The harder inheritance cannot be handled the same way. A famous name and a ready-made audience are not the sort of thing anyone leaves to a charity, and neither is a clear path into the one business he already wants to join. They are simply his, waiting, for whenever he decides to use them.
