Posted by Adam

Wednesday June 17, 2009

Simon Cowell has angrily denied accusations he exploited Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle — insisting “no one put a gun to her head”.

The singing sensation become a worldwide hit after her BGT performance was watched over 300 million times on the internet.

Boyle, who has learning difficulties, has struggled to cope with her new-found fame and was recently forced to check into a London clinic where she was treated for exhaustion.

And Cowell, 49, is adamant the Scottish singer was given every chance to quit the show as her fame heightened between her audition and her semi-final performance.

“I don’t know how someone’s going to cope with fame,” said the millionaire music mogul. “All I can try and do is help them cope with it. But no one ever put a gun to her head and said you’ve got to enter this show, because a lot of people said Susan Boyle should not have been allowed to take part in the competition.

“What you’re not thinking at that moment in time is, that this clip will go out in two months’ time and 300 million people are going to make her one of the most famous people in the world — it doesn’t cross your mind.

“All you’re thinking is, is that things are getting better for you because you want to win a talent show.

“At that point even I sat down with her and said, ‘Look, if this is getting too much for you, you don’t have to go into the final, no one’s going to force you – you do whatever you want, whatever suits you.’

“And she looked me in the eye and said, ‘No, I want to win this competition, I want to give it a go.’ That was the decision we all made.”

Simon even sought her family’s blessing.

“I sat with her family the week afterwards because I invited them in,” he said. “I said, ‘Look you’ve got to tell me because I need to know – did we make the right the decision or the wrong decision having her on the show?’ And they said, ‘You made the right decision because all Susan ever wanted to do was have a shot.’”

Tags: simon cowell, susan boyle