Simon Cowell's 'first kiss' tells more about the 'American Idol' judge

Simon Cowell isn't one to kiss and tell, but the first girl he locked lips with apparently is.


"He'd taken me to the bottom of his garden," Tara McDonald-Smith told People in a Wednesday interview.  "It was very cute and it was very memorable. We were just kids. We didn't know what we were doing!"

McDonald-Smith was one of the callers during a a pre-taped segment on last night's live American Idol results show, and was identified only as "Tara, 46, from Petaluma, CA."

"Which of these two performance is the most memorable for you?" McDonald-Smith asked Cowell during the broadcast.  "Your kiss with Paula Abdul or your first kiss with me at the bottom of your garden when you were 9-years-old?"

Cowell blushed at the question and took a sip from his omnipresent Coca Cola cup.


"So this is Tara Miller right?" he asked with a wink.

"This is Tara Miller," she answered.

"Oh my God, we're going back... 17 years," Cowell joked.  "This is really you Tara?"

"Yeah I promise you Simon it's me.  It's so cool isn't it," she responded.

"Is Simon a good kisser?" asked Idol host Ryan Seacrest.


"I thought that might be coming," she replied.  "Um..."

"Let me jump in here, bearing in mind Tara, I was 9-years-old," said Cowell. "I didn't have a massive amount of experience."

As Seacrest tried to move the broadcast along, Cowell quipped that he wasn't done talking to his old flame.

"Do you still look cute?" he asked.

"I must say you've aged very well, and I think I have too," she answered.


"This literally was my first kiss," said Cowell.  "This was my first crush."

"That's so cute," said Seacrest.  "And to all the kids watching, 9-years-old is too young to kiss."

Even after having some more time to reflect on her first kiss with Cowell, McDonald-Smith still insisted she "can't" recall who made the first move.

"In those days there was like three channels on the television, there were no computers," she told People.  "We used to play spin the bottle... and I got him a lot of the time. It was all good."

Since Cowell is currently 48-years-old, his kiss with McDonald-Smith took place in 1969 -- meaning it's been 39 years since it occurred.


"I saw him on American Idol and [I thought], 'Wow, that's amazing,'" she told People. "It was just one of those This is Your Life-type situations, and I thought I'd go for it. I hope I didn't embarrass him."

Despite the decades that have passed, McDonald-Smith said Cowell hasn't really changed much.

"He was pretty forthcoming and said what he thought," she told People of a childhood Cowell.  "He was not too different than he is today."

McDonald-Smith said she currently works as a sales manager, and the single mom of three added she wouldn't mind catching up with her first kiss. 

"I'd love to meet up with him. I seriously would," she told People. "We were good friends... and I think it would be great fun."






About The Author: Christopher Rocchio