“I felt very depressed because I didn’t know how to explain it to Eric. I couldn’t do all the things I wanted to with him. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to walk again, to ever play football with him.”

On Valentine’s Day in 2014, Simon and Lauren welcomed Eric, and the star revealed that his son came up with an incredible nickname for him following his bike accident last summer.

The Britain’s Got Talent judge explained to Entertainment Tonight that when he arrived home following the incident, he was feeling incredibly “embarrassed.”

The surgery left him with metal rods and screws in his back. After he went home to his family, Simon explained, “He went ‘Dad, you look like Iron Man.’ And I went ‘Yeah, I’m like Iron Man, yeah.’”

Simon has since been able to poke fun at his accidents as well, making a reference to his first more serious one while on AGT in June 2021.

In a family-oriented audition episode, after seeing a father-son duo perform a dangerous Shaolin Kung Fu act, Terry asked Simon whether he ever saw himself doing that with Eric.

“I sort of got to the point after I broke my back where I’m walking around the garden with him and I think it’s a big deal,” Simon joked when talking to the duo. “And now I’m looking at that going ‘maybe not so great!’”