Simon Cowell's Susan Boyle Confession

Simon Cowell, the snarky judge and creator of Britain's Got Talent, recently struck an unexpectedly contrite note about his handling of the show's star Susan Boyle. The Scottish singing sensation was hospitalized for exhaustion (dubbed a mental breakdown by the media) after the show, which she lost by a hair to a dance troupe. She's since missed several appearances on the show's live tour. "Looking back on it all, it has become clear to me that we didn't handle the situation with Susan as well as we could have," he wrote in The Daily Mail. "I certainly didn't think, 'Here comes a phenomenon who is going to become the most famous woman in the world, I wonder if she can mentally cope with it?'" He realized how unprepared for fame she was when she lost the show. "I looked over at her face and thought, 'Christ, she doesn't know how to deal with not winning.'"