Simon Cowell has admitted that he considered killing himself while at school. I should add, I don't think he's saying he had serious suicidal tendencies, just that he found the concept of that cliché that your school days are the "best days of your life" deeply deeply depressing. Which it is. Fortunately it's not generally true.
Anyway, he told Parade magazine: "I was always bored. I didn't like the rules and I didn't like discipline. So when someone said to me, 'These are the best days of your life', I actually thought about jumping off a bridge. I was like, 'If it gets any worse than this I'm done', because I hated school and I hated my life".
However, he admits that a bit of the hard life can help make you a success. He continued: "No one gave me any handouts when I started. I had to work my way up. I certainly learned more when people criticised me than when they lied to me and said what I was doing was right".
Continuing with that theme, but in relation to the criticism he dishes out on the talent shows on which he judges, he said: "You cannot survive in this business unless you know when you've made a mistake. So I would feel guilty about giving people fake hope when I genuinely believe they have no chance".