And so it was that hours later, in a red-top newspaper, her anguish at aborting Cowell’s baby in the Eighties was revealed to the world.
It was difficult and heartbreaking, she says. It was something they ‘dealt with together’ and not something she had kept from the X Factor boss. ‘I’d never do that to him,’ she said. ‘It was devastating for both of us.’
Starting out Simon and Sinitta in London in 1986
She also revealed how she’d clung onto the hope that she and Cowell, now 53, would marry and have children together one day — hopes now well and truly dashed by this
summer’s bombshell that he is expecting his first baby with New York socialite, Lauren Silverman.
‘I have always admitted I wanted to marry him and have children with him,’ says Sinitta, ‘not just because I love him, but because I thought I would be good for him.
‘I think he thought he didn’t want children and he would never want children. And I believed him.’
The revelations don’t end there, however. Today, in the same paper, she will tell ‘the truth’ about Cowell’s so-called harem — the bizarre group of girlfriends and exes he keeps around him, of which Sinitta, 48, was a key member.
It will be a version of events in which the women are on friendly terms, and is said to be about all the fun they have.
But, after weeks of insinuation and about-turns, the question everyone is asking is: Is this really the truth?
In happier times: The 49-year-old singer has
opened up about the termination that left she and the music mogul
utterly 'devastated'
Having tried to convince Sinitta not to speak at all, it would appear Cowell’s team has done a good job ensuring that what she does say is very much the censored version of events.
She has been reminded by Simon of the need to be ‘loyal to him’ and for the past two weeks his press spokesmen on both sides of the Atlantic and his lawyer, Nigel Tait of Carter Ruck, have been trying to keep a lid on her.
But still the fear for team Cowell remains: Will Sinitta ‘go nuclear’ and tell the full, unadulterated story of her extraordinary alliance with Simon. They are very unimpressed with her revelations so far.
As one close friend of Cowell’s told me: ‘She has breached Simon’s privacy, and there is no justification for it. We are furious. To tell the story of her abortion will be damaging to him, particularly in America.
‘The point is, this happened years and years ago, and she’s already had her say so many times. She keeps on saying that she is upset, but you know, who cares apart from Sinitta? She is obsessed with fame, it’s as simple as that.’
Close friends: Simon and Sinitta dated on and off for 20 years and have remained extremely close ever since
‘You also ought to remember that anything she says has to be taken with a pinch of salt. When she told this story she said that they were ‘teenagers in love’ when she fell pregnant. Simon was 23 when they met, so it’s just not possible.’
However, the curious truth is that, even after these damaging revelations, they remain friends.
Sinitta’s publicist Jason Gale told me yesterday: ‘They are still friends, I promise you.’
And Simon’s confidante said: ‘They are still in touch. Some people would rather they were not, but the thing is Simon really likes her.
‘His life is changing, and maybe she will be less important to him, but he’s not told her that they are over, and she may even come with him on his next yacht holiday in December. He’ll decide later this year.’
Why would Simon Cowell even consider staying close to Sinitta after the latest embarrassment?
As Cowell’s publicist Max Clifford put it: ‘If Sinitta thinks this is being friendly, let’s be glad she’s not his enemy.’
Perhaps he feels loyal to her after all these years of being so close. Perhaps he feels guilty over the abortion. And perhaps, say some, he wants to keep her close because she knows his secrets.
So what on earth has rocked the Cowell and Sinitta boat, which has sailed so calmly and discreetly over the past 30 years?
There can be no doubt that the current crisis has been prompted by a sense of betrayal about his shiny new romance with Lauren, 36, despite Sinitta’s protestations this week about how happy she was for them.
She told a newspaper yesterday: ‘She’s in love with him and he’s in love with her. I’m happy for them and I mean that. Simon is in the next phase of his life, and I find it fascinating watching him grow and embrace the changes.’
It was, naturally, a shock for her to find Lauren was pregnant, as she had not even realised that the two of them were in a relationship.
However
the two women had a ‘clearing the air’ meeting in August in the South
of France, and Sinitta claims that all is now well.
'Devastating': Sinitta spoke out about the 'heartbreaking' abortion she and Simon Cowell
went through together in the 1980s
This is a completely different version of events to that she gave in an interview with Hello! last month, in which she was quoted as saying: ‘When I found out, I will admit I was taken aback and did feel a sense of betrayal.’
A few days later, a newspaper reported that Simon was the father of the baby Sinitta had aborted; she had spoken about the termination in an interview in 2009, but never confirmed his involvement.
The positive sentiments of the past 24 hours seem to have been plastered over a painful situation, evidenced in a series of numerous, bizarre Tweets in the past few weeks.
She
had thundered, in 140-character snippets, about wanting to tell ‘the
whole truth’ about the termination and added: ‘Enough is enough.’
She’s
even spoken about taking a lie detector test on Jeremy Kyle’s show, and
also put out a cryptic: ‘Harem: a group of women kept together for the
purpose of having sex with one man.’To put things into context, the story of Sinitta and Simon goes back to 1982, when they met at the Embassy Club in London. She was 18 and he was 23.
They began a romance which was not exclusive. She had a fling with the singer David Essex and Simon romanced a model.
However, they went back to each other. The liaison limped on through many infidelities, but he still kept her close.
In 1995, for instance, Cowell’s girlfriend Louise Payne was surprised to find that Sinitta and another ex-girlfriend, Jackie St Clair, were virtually living with him in his house in Richmond.
Sinitta told an interviewer: ‘We’re very close, very companionable, very compatible. We find it very easy to be together. I didn’t have a brother or a father when I was younger, so he’s the male figure I’ve had in my life the longest. He’s just so many things to me.’
He was a support during her struggles to have children with former husband Andy Willner, and Simon became godfather to the couple’s children Zac, eight and Magdalena, seven, who were born by surrogate.
They are Simon’s godchildren and until a few weeks ago were expected to inherit his £225 million fortune, or at least a chunk of it. He also provides for them via a trust fund.
And, as recently as August this year, Cowell set up a joint venture company with Sinitta — with her trying to find him a new boyband — arranging for her to have space near his Sony office in London.
It all seemed very cosy. Indeed Sinitta admits that she was ‘in love’ with Cowell until two or three years ago.
Her mother Miquel told me that they do share a deep bond. She said: ‘They are best buddies, the best of friends. It’s a relationship that is deep, more like sister and brother. And people do not realise that our families have been friends for years. I knew Simon’s mum and dad.’
Yet could this unassailable bond survive if Sinitta does ‘tell all’?
What she could actually reveal is the subject of much speculation. One claim is that Cowell and Sinitta were on intimate terms until very recently. It is also said that his PR Max Clifford has kept dozens of kiss and tells about Cowell out of the papers over recent years.
Many believe that one of the secrets is that Cowell is gay. However, although Simon’s camp manner is suggestive, he has publicly dismissed that rumour and people who know him well say that this isn’t true.
Only time will tell what, if anything, Sinitta chooses to reveal — and whether her relationship with Cowell survives. No doubt, a superb team of spinners and lawyers are poised to swoop and clean-up whatever mess she leaves in her wake.
But one phrase remains resonant throughout: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
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