Simon Cowell has spoken about the burglary which took place at his home on Friday night. At around 2am thieves broke into the mogul's £10m London mansion and got away with £500,000 worth of jewellery, but it could have been worse if it wasn’t for one ‘hero’ security guard.

Simon CowellSimon Cowell has spoken about his London home being burgled.

Speaking to The Sun, Cowell said the first thing that he and partner Lauren Silverman did when they heard about the break in, was to check on their 21-month-old son Eric. “That was the first thing we did, to make sure he was OK,” Cowell said.

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“Apart from the fact someone broke into my house and stole my stuff, which is scary, it could have been worse. Thankfully no one was hurt. 'The most frightening thing is someone has been in your house. It's not what they steal, it's that's someone can break into your house. It's nerve-racking.”

Cowell praised his security guard M'Bathonha Mendes who chased what he called 'suspicious' man, who later dropped a bag full of jewels and Cowell's passport. Mendes is now said to be getting a Christmas bonus for his heroism.

“There are private security guards who patrol the area and they saw the guy leave and he dropped my passport,” Cowell explained. '[One] got out the car, picked up my passport, realised it was mine and approached the guy. The guy ran off and then he [the guard] told us there was somebody who'd burgled the house – that's how we found out about it.”

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Cowell also mentioned the burglary on last night’s edition of ‘The X-Factor’, after contestants Reggie 'N' Bollie sang 'Locked Away' by R City featuring Adam Levine. “Very appropriate the night after I get burgled,” Cowell said after seeing the performance.