Gareth Varey was recorded saying that he knew 54-year-old Simon ‘had slept with men’.
Now though, the N-Dubz singer’s assistant has retracted his comments, saying that he must have been ‘very drunk’.
READ: TULISA TO APPEAR IN TV DOCUMENTARY ABOUT HER YEAR LONG ORDEAL
In a statement, Gareth 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 the 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 I was giving Mahmood the type of information he was seeking. I am very sorry for this.”
READ: SIMON COWELL STATEMENT AFTER TULISA DRUG TRIAL COLLAPSES
Simon himself hit back at the recording and the rumours, with a spokeperson for him saying: “In 2014 the question of whether someone is or is not gay is antiquated (As is happens he isn’t, though if he were, he would simply have said so).
“However, the issue was 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 and this is what we have been obliged to clarify.”
READ: TULISA SPEAKS OUT ON DRUGS CASE: "IT WAS HORRIFIC ENTRAPMENT"
Tulisa was appearing in court charged for being concerned with the supply of Class A drugs, after Mahmood, posing as someone else, recorded her saying she could broker an £800 cocaine deal.
However on Monday the judge ‘threw the case out of court’, and said that there were “strong grounds to believe” Mahmood had lied at a previous hearing.