Tulisa’s PA: ‘I don’t know why I said Simon Cowell was gay – it is not true’
Simon Cowell has received an apology from Tulisa Contostavlos’ personal assistant who made false claims about the music mogul’s sexual orientation.
Last week, Southwalk Crown Court heard the former N-Dubz singer’s associate Gareth Varey was caught on tape telling undercover Sun journalist Mazher Mahmood that he knew several men who have slept with The X Factor boss.
Following the collapse of Contostavlos’s drugs trial on Monday, Cowell’s spokesperson released a statement denying the claims and taking issue with “the false suggestion made by Mr Varey that Simon – who is renowned for his honesty and candidness – had thus not been truthful in the public arena”.
Mr Varey issued an apology to Cowell on Wednesday, saying that he was not sure why he had made the comment, and that he was “drunk” at the time.
In a statement, Mr Varey said: “On 10 May 2013 in the course of seeking to entrap Tulisa, Mazher Mahmood supplied Tulisa, me and others with a lot of alcohol… I can no longer recall all of the details of that evening but I have listened to the recording made by Mahmood. I was clearly very drunk.
“At some point and utterly out of the blue Mahmood asked me if Simon Cowell was gay. I said he was. This is not true. I do not know why I said it, but assume it is because I was so drunk and felt that I was giving Mahmood the type of information he was seeking. I am very sorry for this.”
Earlier this weekm Tulisa Contostavlos was cleared of being concerned in the supply of cocaine over inconsistencies in Mazher Mahmood’s evidence.
