Simon Cowell's surprising father of the bride role at upcoming wedding

Simon Cowell is in the midst of planning his wedding with Lauren Silverman following their engagement on Christmas Eve 2021 in Barbados.

While their big day has been a long time coming, the music mogul, 64, is "honoured" to have a big role in another upcoming wedding.

Former X Factor star Lucy Spraggan, who briefly appeared on the 2012 show, asked Simon – whom she described as a "surrogate parent" – to take on the role traditionally reserved for the father of the bride and walk her down the aisle.

Speaking to Fabulous Magazine about her wedding plans with Emilia Smith, she opened up about their close relationship and revealed how he reacted to the news. "We’d been staying at Simon and [his fiancée] Lauren [Silverman]’s house for a few days. One morning, Simon was about to get in the sea and I said, 'Will you give me away?' He replied: 'Yeah!'" she said.

"He went off for a swim and when he came back, he said, 'I’d absolutely love to. It would be an honor.'"

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Lucy announced her engagement to her long-term friend Emilia on Instagram on Monday, sharing a carousel of photos of the pair kissing in the woods with Emilia sporting a pear-shaped diamond ring.

"When you know you know. That’s [the] response we’ve heard the most over the last few weeks when Emilia & I have told our people that we are, in fact, getting married in June," she wrote in the caption, before explaining their love story.

"I am so thankful that the universe gave me you, Emilia. I was immensely thankful when you were just my friend and I cannot begin to describe the gratitude I have to experience your love in a different way.

"Every single part of life has had to happen in order to be standing right beside you now & I honestly would not live any other kind of alternative even if I could. People say 'I don’t know what I did to deserve you' but I’ve told you before, I think everything I’ve ever done has [led] me to you.

"You were the prize. All the hard work & all the survival got us both to where we were supposed to be: thriving beside each other.

"You are without doubt the hottest, most cool, talented, hardworking, kind and spiritual soul I’ve ever come across and it is the world’s greatest privilege to be with you. I hope you know how much I’ve always admired you.

"I can’t wait to start life as a team. I can’t think of a better way to start a marriage than 10 years of friendship first."

While Lucy has revealed her wedding will take place in June, Simon has remained much more tight-lipped about his celebration with his fiancee Lauren. He has made a few comments about the size of the guest list, insisting that he wanted to organise it himself in order to prevent it from getting too large and out of hand, and has coyly said it will be "spontaneous".

As he walked the America's Got Talent season 18 red carpet, the TV star – who shares son Eric with Lauren – revealed he was finding planning "easy."

"It depends on how big or small you make it. Don't forget, we've known each other a long time, so trust me, this is not gonna be a thousand people turning up or whatever. It's easy."

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