Sinitta is convinced she'd have married Simon Cowell if he hadn't had a child with Lauren Silverman.

The 'So Macho' hitmaker first dated the music mogul in the 1980s and although they've both had numerous relationships since then, the 51-year-old singer always believed she'd ultimately settle down with the 'X Factor' judge.

Discussing what made her and Simon finally end their on/off romance, she said: ''It was Lauren Silverman really. With Simon and I there was always an element of, 'well, it's never really over.' But when Eric was born, that was it. A game changer. I would never, ever want to come between his family. I want them to be happy.''

Asked if she thought she'd have married Simon if he wasn't with Lauren, she added to new! magazine: ''Yes, absolutely. Well, that's my opinion, Simon might say differently.

''I really believed when he got all the madness of the other women out of his system, we'd end up together.

''I adore his family, they adore me, it always felt comfortable and right with him and I would've married him and stayed with him forever. I never fell out of love with him.''

In 2002, Sinitta married Andy Wilner and they adopted two children and she suggested she only settled down with the businessman - who she split from in 2010 - because Simon wouldn't fulfil her dream of having a family.

She said: ''When I did actually marry my husband, he was based in Hong Kong and I couldn't handle him being there and me living in the UK, raising our two children. So that was my only experience of real marriage...

''[Simon is] the person I always went back to when I was single.

''He always said he'd never get married or have children, so that was a problem, because I wanted both. So I had to go off and marry someone else, adopt children but when that relationship broke up, Simon and I still came back together.''

Sinitta was ''devastated'' when she found out Lauren was pregnant.

She admitted: ''It was very hard to take and I was shocked at the time. Openly so.

''He was aware I was devastated and so was Lauren but we deal with it.

'' They made me godmother and we remained close.

''But it was difficult for me and difficult for Lauren. She probably didn't want the ex-girlfriend in such proximity. But we're fine now.''

Sinitta found the couple's relationship difficult in the beginning because she and Lauren had been such close friends.

Asked if she's happy it was Lauren who changed Simon, she replied: ''Er... no. She and I were best friends. Seven years on and I'm really happy for them but it was really hard and caused a fallout between us.

''I adore Eric and he wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. God has a plan that is often different to your own.

''I have a lot of love and acceptance now. Love is stronger than pride.''