Sharon Osbourne says she was 'never friends' with Simon Cowell

Sharon Osbourne was "never friends" with Simon Cowell.

The 71-year-old star worked alongside music mogul Simon, 64, as a judge on the UK version of The X Factor from 2004 until 2007 and on America's Got Talent from 2007 until 2012 but admitted she wouldn't call her former colleague a friend and insisted they were just colleagues.

She told The Sun on Sunday's Bizarre column: "I never was friends with him. I just worked for him, but he was never a friend."

Earlier this year, Simon reportedly unfollowed Sharon on Instagram and her comments come shortly after she alleged that the Syco founder claimed she was "too old" to serve as a judge on another reality show.

She said: "Simon goes, 'She's old. We need somebody young. So if you want young, fire yourself and get rid of those man t***. Call me tomorrow and we'll discuss it. It is a boys club, okay, it is, and the boys take care of each other, and the women are not paid as much as the men."

"Simon owns the show and the time I was there, Simon was never on the show. So when the show was doing 16 million, 14 million, Simon was never there."

Meanwhile, Sharon recently alleged that she has employed a number of men over the years who have taken an interest in her female employees and claimed that she had caught some of them "abusing" younger members of staff.

She told The Sunday Mirror: "The amount of men that have worked for me that have been looking for those young girls. [One employee] has worked for me 40 years and the times I have fired men taking advantage of her, abusing her, and trying to ply her with drink."

Sharon was then asked if she had ever had her own moment which could have been part of the #MeToo movement but insisted that never happened to her because she was "too threatening" as a young woman.

She said: "Never… I was too threatening. I've never wanted to be shown as vulnerable. When I started there were no other women managers in this genre. It's tough. That's why people go, 'She's so this, so that'. But you have to be, otherwise, people eat you up. It's survival."

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