Simon Cowell thinks his son Eric has what it takes to be a Britain's Got Talent judge

"He does enjoy coming down to auditions," proud dad Simon said. "The first time I brought him to Britain’s Got Talent he thought it was scary because of the big red Xs, but then after a few months I said, ‘What does Daddy do when he goes to work?’ and he said I pressed buttons - it’s a little more than that!

"Now, he understands the show so I watch him and I’m like, ‘Eric do you like it? Don’t you like it?’

"He’s got a really good eye and ear for it, so yes, he’s going to be doing this one day."

Simon doesn't usually like it when judges David Walliams, Amanda Holden or Alesha Dixon disagree with him, but it seems he's prepared to make an exception for Eric who is allowed to object to his dad's opinions as much as he wants.

"Of course he disagrees with me," Simon says. "He's so funny though, he cracks me up!"

Amanda is also a fan of the toddler and his abilities as a judge, even though he doesn't return her affections.

"I think he’s got an eye for talent and a great sense of humour," she says.

"He’s very cute; as soon as he arrives in the room I’m all over him and he runs a mile! Rightly so because he knows me, but he doesn’t know me that well. I’m like, ‘Give me a kiss Eric!’ and he’s like, ‘No!’. That’s right, he should be like that. It’s just like Simon, he runs a mile from me as well."

But Simon has apparently mellowed a lot recently – even embracing his "spiritual" side, according to Amanda.

She explains: "I’ve learnt a lot about Simon this year. He’s wanting to know much more about every single contestant, he's delving really deeply into people’s personal lives, he’s asking about their motivations, how they feel, how happy they are. He’s not really interested in what kinds of music they like or why they want to be on the show, it’s much more deep rooted than that.

"He’s turned into something quite spiritual this year, it’s really unnerved me. He’s being really nice. I don’t like it! It’s like, ‘Why are you being so nice?’"

Even better, Simon has developed a Pinterest addiction and is now obsessed with interior design. That's right. If you can find his secret account we might even give you a prize.

"Simon has found Pinterest and has been on it until four in the morning! He hasn’t been ringing LA having all these meetings he’s saying he’s been having, he’s been on Pinterest, pinning things to his mood boards," Amanda reports (snitch!).

"Me and Simon are very much into our interior design this year. Last year it was food, this year I’m showing him all these different apps, curtain fabrics, my ideas for wallpaper. He’s been showing me what he likes, I’ve even shown him some landscape gardening I’m interested in. It’s been really domestic."

Britain's Got Talent 2017 will begin on Saturday 15 April at 8pm on ITV