The always tough and mean X Factor USA judge Simon Cowell showed a chink in his armor. You can now be sure that he can get hurt, too.

In an interview with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, Simon admitted to the national audience that the 90s girl group Spice Girls was probably his biggest mistake in his career and that he was "kind of hurt" when they decided to not sign with him back then.

"What can I admit to? Spice Girls was probably my biggest mistake. I knew they were going to be big and I offered them a deal but I was just too late on the deal and they didn't want to sign to me, that kind of hurt at the time."

Although the 54-year old English television music and talent competition judge showed his soft side, that didn't come without being mean to another artist. On the same show, he said that he didn't sign another band because he think the members are ugly. That band was Westlife, which went on to have 14 UK number one hits.

"I quickly put together another group. Well another group auditioned for me. They were called Westlife. When they first came along they were the ugliest boy band in the world. So seriously you couldn't get uglier. I said to the manager at the time, 'Forget it.' Then he re-auditioned but one of the ugly ones dyed his hair blonde for the second time I saw them and he got back into the group."

However, Cowell said that he wasn't that hurt when he started seeing the boy group making a name for themselves.