Samantha Lavery has revealed that Simon Cowell's two-year-old son told her she is his favourite after joining his dad for a day at work on the X Factor.
According to Samantha, who is currently being mentored by the music mogul as part of the 'girls' category of the singing competition, Eric is just like "a mini Simon."
Eric visited his dad at work
In an interview with the The Daily Star, she joked: “[Eric] came running up to me in the corridor the other day and told me I was his favourite!
"He's like a mini Simon – seeing them sit next to each other is scary. It's really sweet watching Simon with him. He's a great dad and you can tell he is very protective."
The three girls currently being mentored by Simon includingSamantha, Gifty Louise and Emily Middlemas have previously opened up about Eric joining his dad for rehearsals.
Gifty told reporters including HELLO! Online: "He's like a mini Simon Cowell... They walked in together and Eric sat on the chair next to him and [Simon] was patting him like, 'are you okay?' It was just so cute."
Samantha revealed that she is little Eric's favourite act
Samantha added: "He's sat there shouting 'daddy daddy!' it's literally the cutest… When we were singing Simon was looking at him like, 'do you like them?' We were like, 'we've got to impress Simon and now we've got to impress mini Simon!' No pressure!"
Simon has previously revealed that he would love to teach his son about the music industry, saying: "I would really like the idea of teaching him how to run the business. I would like to teach him how to do my job as quickly as possible. I would like to pass the reigns to him."