Simon Cowell’s life flashed before his eyes during a dangerous stunt on Saturday night’s Britain’s Got Talent.

The show boss is called up on stage, told to lie down and keep very still while performer Kranthi DrillMan smashes watermelons inches from his head with a sledgehammer.

In true Simon style, he doesn’t listen and moves around, making the move extra risky, Alesha Dixon, 46, and Amanda Holden, 54, are keen for the act to stop the act, as the sledgehammer lands centimetres from Cowell’s face.

“I genuinely thought my days were numbered,” admits Simon. “The producers on this show just love my pain! There was one point, and I’m not lying, I genuinely thought, ‘That’s it. It’s over’. A guy nearly smashed my head in with a sledgehammer. He was slipping all over the place and sweating so much. That’s what freaked me out because when I got up close, I thought, ‘My god, his adrenaline’s on such a high, I shouldn’t be doing this’.”

Simon Cowell risks his life in a terrifying dare ( 
Image:
Ian West/PA Wire)

He continued: “Amanda and Alesha were not happy. When I looked at them, they were really worried. I don’t want to push my luck, I did say at one point that I think I’m running out of lives here.” Kranthi DrillMan is an Indian adventurer who has the Guinness World Record for stopping the most number of fans with his tongue, with 57.

It comes after Simon suffered a near-death experience back in 2020. The man behind the X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent suffered an injury that left him “lucky to be alive”. The music mogul was sent to hospital after an e-bike crash in which he hit a wet patch and went over the handlebars in West London. Afterwards, he was treated for a concussion and a broken arm as well as a severely injured back. The fall resulted in Cowell having a metal rod put into his spine, amid multiple procedures and operations.

Amanda and Alesha were left horrified by the terrifying dare ( 
Image:
PA Wire/PA Images)
However, after the horror bike crash, a defiant Simon insisted that he wasn’t going to give up his hobby. After his second bike crash in Malibu, Simon spoke to his ex Terri Seymour on ExtraTV, where he said: “My most creative time is now when I cycle, because I cycle even though it’s an e-bike. I still got to pedal and I do about 10 miles a day, even though I had an accident on one.

“That was more an electric motorbike, these are called pedal-assist bikes and they’re brilliant. That expression ‘get back on your bike’, with me, it was literal. I feel better than I did because I exercise so much more. Honestly, if I could rewind, I would have gone through the whole thing again. Just because I feel better now. Yeah, even though it hurt like hell at the time.”