Simon Cowell has revealed that he secretly slapped on his mum’s make-up – but only in a bid to bunk off school.

The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent judge says he used foundation to make himself look pale and sick.

‘I didn’t like school so I had a trick – I put my mother’s white make-up on,’ he confesses. And then he'd hold a hot drink against his forehead to make it seem like he had a fever.

‘I’d put a cup of tea on my head, call my mum and dad and say: "Not well, feel my temperature,"' he tells US chat show host Jay Leno.

‘Dad always believed me, Mum didn’t.’

And cheeky Simon, 48, also says he used to kiss himself in preparation for wooing female classmates. 'I practised in the mirror,' he admits.

Kate Burlaga