Boyle found it 'difficult to cope', admits Cowell
Susan Boyle had found it "very, very difficult" to cope with the intense media pressure following her appearance on 'Britain's Got Talent', Simon Cowell has admitted.
He said Boyle was aware of the pressure of appearing on Britain's Got Talent but had still decided to carry on with the show.
Boyle, from Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland became one of the year's most unlikely stars after a series of knockout displays on the ITV programme.
But trouble began after she failed to win the competition and she eventually sought help at a Priory clinic, pulling out of the Manchester date for the 'Britain's Got Talent' tour.
Mr Cowell said: "Everyone is writing about her, she's in the spotlight and she found it difficult to cope with and, at that point, even I sat down with her and said: 'Look, if this is getting too much for you, you don't have to go into the final, no-one is going to force you.'
"'You do whatever you want, no-one is going to force you.'
"And she looked me in the eye and said: 'No, I want to win this competition, I want to give it a go' and that was the decision we all made and I thought that she wanted to do it, but it was only at the moment that she lost that it hits you and you go: 'How is she going to cope with this?' and she found it very, very difficult."
He added: "You can't predict how things are going to escalate and how well that person can cope.
"What I don't want to do at the beginning is go through a whole kind of psychological evaluation because I think, for me, that is almost discrimination."
Regarding Boyle's no-show at Manchester, Cowell said: "I genuinely didn't know what she was going to do. Our feeling was that there are 10 or 12 acts on the bill, but that everyone, like me, said: 'We don't want to force her into performing but hopefully you'll enjoy the show' - it's a tricky one."
