Simon Cowell had a breakdown earlier this summer.

The TV mogul suffered a collapse as the strains of managing his working life - which includes a portfolio of shows including The X Factor in the UK and US, Britain's Got Talent and America's Got Talent - became too much for him. Simon reportedly had to take a step back from auditions for this year's 'X Factor' in the US after he feared his lifestyle was making him into a "weird vampire."

In an updated new chapter of his book, Sweet Revenge: The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell, Tom Bower says the TV star told his close friend and X Factor colleague Louis Walsh, "I don't want any more tablets and pills. I'm cutting out the lot, including cigarettes. I desperately need peace. I'm craving normality. I've got to work out my demons and come out of it. I have to get back to where I was years ago. I had to stop reading texts at three in the morning and making calls later and later. I wanted peace."

Simon, 52, later added to friends that the pressures of constantly flying between the US and the UK were getting too much for him, saying, "My life was like a night shift. I'd forgotten the sensation of the morning."