Simon Cowell says his friend and former ‘X Factor’ judge Cheryl is in “good place in her life right now,” with One Direction’s Liam Payne. The music mogul said that Cheryl had a stressful year while dealing with the break down of her marriage to Jean Bernard Fernandez-Versini, but denies that he had anything to do with the couple’s split.

Cheryl Fernandez-VersiniSimon Cowell says Cheryl is in a “good place” after finding love with Liam Payne.

When asked by The Mirror about reports that Cheryl and Liam were trying for a baby, Cowell said: “I guess that is what happens when you are with someone. Cheryl would be an amazing mum. I have seen her with my son Eric and other kids over the years and she is incredible.

"She is very good with them. I think she is in a good place in her life right now.” During her time on ‘X Factor’ last year Cheryl was dealing with the end of her 18 month marriage, while the show was suffering from falling ratings.

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“It was stressful last year I think, unnecessarily stressful. When you make changes and you make a series and the public don’t agree with what you have done, you just live with that for the whole series. That does put pressure on you when you are on the show. But that is what you get paid for.

“Cheryl probably picked up on that a bit and with the marriage breaking down at the same time, it is not ideal when you are on live TV every week. We make enough shows and we will always be working with Cheryl in some capacity. She is very loyal and she is a great girl. I really like her and I just want her to be happy.”

Cowell also addressed reports that he and the show played a part in the breakdown of Cheryl’s marriage. While he said he had nothing to do with the split, he did admit there were times when Jean Bernard’s behaviour was out of order.

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“To be honest, there was one night where his behaviour was out of order,” Cowell said. "Cheryl had an act in the bottom two or something. He was on his feet, screaming and looking at me. I went hang on a minute, this is a competition it is not my fault.

"I said afterwards to Cheryl it might be better if he doesn’t come and watches it at home on TV where he could jump on as many sofas as he wants. Their marriage breakdown had nothing to do with me, I got on fine with him,” he added. “I just think he got a bit over excited when he came down to the shows.”