Simon Cowell once went on a bizarre date with Denise Richards

The 51-year-old music mogul — who is now engaged to make-up artist Mezhgan Hussainy — explained he was set up by a mutual friend on a “blind date” with the 40-year-old actress, who turned up “eight months pregnant with a dog in her handbag”.

“We had a bizarre kind of blind date several years ago,” Simon said. “She’s cute. She turned up eight months pregnant and had a dog in her handbag.”

The X Factor judge admitted while he thinks Denise — who has daughters Sam, seven, and Lola, six, with ex-husband Charlie Sheen, as well as adopted baby daughter Eloise Joni — is “gorgeous, funny and a bit of a wacko”, her being heavily pregnant put him off.

Asked whether Denise’s impending motherhood was “a real turnoff”, Simon told Howard Stern’s 101 Sirius XM Radio show, “A little bit. But she is gorgeous. I liked her a lot. I think she’s cute, funny, a bit of a wacko, but I like that.