Simon Cowell’s older brother reveals how mogul supported him through secret cancer battle
SIMON Cowell’s older brother has told how the music mogul supported him as he beat cancer.
Tony Cowell, 73, revealed he fought a secret battle with the illness last year but is now in remission after an NHS op and chemo.
He said Simon, 63, had offered to sort out his care.
When told there was no need, the TV star insisted on speaking to his brother’s consultant about his treatment.
Author and journalist Tony was diagnosed with stage 2 bladder cancer and called to tell Simon at his home in Los Angeles, where he lives with fiancée Lauren Silverman, 45, and son Eric, nine.
Tony said: “I could hear he was extremely upset — I had to calm him down. He then switched and became Mr Helpful.”
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Tony, from Falmouth, Cornwall, realised he needed to see a doctor after a trip to Greece with his wife Emma, 46.
He said: “The day after we got back, there was blood in my urine.
"I went straight to my GP, who said it was a sign of bladder cancer. I didn’t know what to say to Emma or my son Luke.”
Emma, also an author, was working on her just- released second novel, The House in the Olive Grove — which has a character with cancer — when Tony received his news.
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She said: “I was halfway through the novel and I was talking to Tony about it and how the people were affected.
"It is so deeply ironic then that a week later we were those characters.”
Tony added: “Suddenly fiction looked like it was becoming fact.”
- The House in the Olive Grove by Emma Cowell is out now — published by Avon Harper Collins