Simon Cowell was left shocked recently when Harry Styles called him to reminisce about One Direction. Simon, 64, created the boyband - featuring Harry, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson - on 'The X Factor' in 2010 and although Harry has gone on to find huge solo success since the bang's hiatus in 2016, he enjoyed a recent phone call with his former mentor where they discussed the good old days. Harry's phone call was inspired by listening to Simon discuss the band on Steven Bartlett's 'Diary Of A CEO' podcast in June.
Simon told HELLO! magazine: "It was great to hear from him. He said listening to the podcast reminded him of what a great a time we had together. Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
"I thought it said so much about him that he would bother to make that phone call." Meanwhile, Simon admitted on the podcast that he had one huge regret about his time with One Direction. He said: "The one thing I regret is I should have kept the name.
I should have owned the name. That's the problem. When you give an artist the name, it's not yours.
And that's my only regret. So if you're listening, I'll buy it back from you. "If one of the band members, for whatever reason, say they don't want to tour, it can stop the others [from] touring.
So, if it was me who owned the name, it wouldn't be a problem. "That was me being very naive. Next time I need to own the name.
" Simon also revealed he was always confident .
