Sinitta opens up on her relationship with ex Simon Cowell

Sinitta opened up about her relationship with ex Simon Cowell on Friday’s I’m A Celebrity All Stars, as she candidly shared the reason why their relationship failed.

The singer – who became a familiar face on the ITV talent show as Simon’s guest at the judges’ houses stage of the competition – first met him in a London nightclub when she was a teenager in the early 1980s.

She said she had always believed the pair would end up together, despite their famously on-off romance spanning more than 20 years, and they have remained close friends after their split.

Sinitta confessed that while it could be a challenge to get hold of Simon, their relationship failed as she because ‘too needy and possessive.’

Simon is now engaged to his partner Lauren Silverman, and they son Eric, 12.

Sinitta told her campmates: ‘He wasn’t a faithful boyfriend. He wouldn’t mind me saying it because he knows, and I was very possessive, but he kind of likes that.

‘Women act crazy about Simon, especially in American Idol. I’ve been burned on the shoulder with a cigarette when we were dancing in the club because some woman, gorgeous, model sort of thing, was trying to get to him.

‘I feel like Simon loves me and cares about me, but it’s just, I think I romanticise everything.

‘And then you see him with his partner and his baby, well, he’s a big boy now, and it’s like, wow, OK, like everyone really does have their proper person. 

‘You know, I was the right person for a time, but they’ve just got this whole level of… that we, we didn’t have.

‘I think I was just too, probably too needy. I genuinely believed that we were gonna get married. 

‘I’m such a romantic that I think twas gonna be our happier after, and then it wasn’t, so that was pretty hard, but then you start growing up quickly.’

While Sinitta and Simon are still good friends, the star previously admitted her marriage to ex-husband Andy Willner was a ‘revenge move’ after their split.

She told the Suddenly Single podcast: ‘I was trying to make that relationship it. His narrative was just be patient, and you’ll have everything you want. 

‘I assumed everything I wanted meant a normal family life with him. And then he met the love of his life and had a child. Silly me.’

‘The man that I married was actually a lovely person,’ she said. ‘It was a bit of a revenge move at the time, but it developed into something. But even during that relationship, it was obvious that there was unfinished business [with Simon].’

Sinitta, who previously revealed she had an abortion during her relationship with Simon in the 1980s, said therapy eventually helped her understand why she had clung to the Britain’s Got Talent boss for so long.

‘Apart from my mother, he was the constant person in my life,’ she explained. ‘When I’m on tour and becoming famous and all of that, there was still him everywhere or him at the end of the phone. So I think I’d found a sort of security in that person.’

It comes after Sinitta blasted I’m A Celebrity bosses for ‘editing’ her row with Gemma Collins after the exchange sparked backlash from viewers.

The singer furiously accused ITV of editing the clash between the pair, which took place during Thursday night’s episode of the All Stars series of the show.

Sinitta and Gemma, 45, were seen at odds after the former TOWIE alum joined her fellow celebrities in the main camp, moving from basic camp Savannah Scrubs. 

The pair were talking about the musical Chicago when Sinitta was seen branding Gemma ‘a joke’ after they both were cast as matron Mama Morton in the stage play.

Gemma was due to play the character back in 2022, but had to withdraw from the production because he had suffered a ‘terrible injury’.

And Sinitta took a quick swipe at the Diva Forever star, hitting out that she thought casting her in the role would have been a ‘joke announcement’.

It sparked outrage among viewers, with many taking to social media to slate Sinitta’s reaction – but instead she has insisted the chat was ‘edited’.

Writing in a lengthy social media post about how they ‘edited out us speaking amicably’, the So Macho singer said: ‘Goodness! I know none of you have ever heard of me before because you are young, if you did you would know I’m a very kind person who would never be horrible to Gemma Collins or anyone else.

‘We actually bonded over discussing Chicago, I didn’t call her a joke, I said I thought the announcement was a joke at the time as I had not been aware that she sang and danced etc.

‘There was lots of gossip about it in Theatreland when she didn’t do the show. Me and Brenda Edwards had to step in and play the role again.

‘I had nothing else in common with Gemma apart from Chicago so it was a natural thing to talk to her about and they edited out us speaking amicably about the director and her calling us “2 Mama Morton’s”.

‘You are all being genuinely nasty here, because you love her, I get it. But I gave her a chance to tell her side from the horses mouth!

‘Think about it…. That is not rude, it’s called conversations. Why do people fear open conversations ?

‘Maybe I’m too old school, but then I AM OLD and been working since the 80’s, I had a successful TV, theatre and film career before I even met Simon Cowell.’

It’s not the first bust-up between Gemma and Sinitta, as it was previously revealed that Gemma accused Sinitta of leaking stories from the cast WhatsApp chat.