Anyway he has no engagement plans - he says he and his girlfriend Terri Seymour are perfectly happy as they are. They spend quite a lot of time apart, because she is based in the US, where she works for the entertainment show Extra, but that's fine, he says, because he likes spending time on his own. But she is 34 - what happens if or when she wants children?
"I don't know. Look, we've had this conversation, she and I, and that is quite a private matter, but I think we both understand each other." (Incidentally, Grazia magazine got wildly excited the other day when he was seen holding hands with Dannii Minogue, and there were jokes about it on X Factor, but it looked like the purest publicity fluff to me.)
His current television contracts run till 2009, when he will be 50, but he thinks after that he might retire from the screen. He'd still like to produce shows, but not appear on them. I'm surprised because I thought he liked being a "face" on television but he's not so sure. "I quite like it. I mean, it's not a bad job! It's fun. But it's an incredibly tight schedule. I'm petrified right now of getting ill because everyone round me has got flu and if I get it I'll screw up all the filming. I also think there is a limit, when the public just goes: 'I'm bored with you now.' And I don't think that time is too far away."
I'm inclined to agree - this X Factor has been pretty boring. On the other hand, Cowell has been its sole redeeming feature. I'm still not sure why, but there's an edge to him, a glint of danger.
And incidentally I've discovered since I started doing this piece that loads of women have dreamed about Simon Cowell - he seems to be almost as dreamed-about as the Queen. Which I don't think you could say of Michael Winner, so perhaps they're not entirely alike after all.
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