Simon Cowell certainly seems to be paying the price for his smoking habit. The ‘X-Factor’ boss reportedly has to cough up £100 every time he lights up during filming of the ITV series, thanks to a rule stating anyone smoking in the building has to pay a £100 fine.

Simon CowellSimon Cowell has to pay a hefty fine for smoking at the ‘X-Factor’ studios.

The Sunday Mirror reports that Cowell enjoys his expensive smokes during advert breaks on the live show. 'Over the course of a series we're talking about literally thousands of pounds,’ a source told the newspaper.

Cowell is said to be unable to wait until after the cameras stopped rolling to light up, because filming is so stressful. 'Simon makes no secret of the fact that he enjoys a cigarette to help him relax and obviously being on the judging panel while also running the show is very stressful,’ the source added.

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'Rather than wait until  after the show and go outside like everybody else, Simon uses the advert breaks - but because they're so short he never quite makes it outside. People say smoking is a very expensive habit – but Simon has taken that to new heights.'

The law states that a person smoking in the workplace in England can be fined up to £200 and that 'smokers must go outside’. Cowell has previously been frank about his smoking habit, once admitting to enjoying up to 40 cigarettes a day.

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However the birth of his son Eric has promoted the mogul to cut back. “This is the one thing I would find very difficult to give up because I do love a cigarette,” Cowell said last month.

“If Eric grows up and says stop it, I don’t know what I would do,” he added. “I don’t smoke around him and I wouldn’t do that. I have thought about what he might say in a few years. It is my worst vice.”