With his thinning hair and faded blue oversized polo shirt, he looks for all the world like a man who has succumbed to the comforts of middle age and is not, perhaps, the catch he once was.

He is Ahmed Shah Zahiri, who has made a decent enough living supplying Oriental rugs to the whitewashed stucco villas of Santa Barbara in California.

At first glance, the possibility of any link between the dishevelled Ahmed and the star-studded world of television celebrity might seem remote — but there is a fascinating connection. For this man’s ex-wife is the new girlfriend of millionaire X Factor mogul and American Idol judge Simon Cowell.

Ahmed was married for eight years to Mezhgan Hussainy, who appears to have bewitched Cowell to the extent that the confirmed bachelor has been happy to be seen kissing and hugging her in public.

Mezhgan — pronounced ‘Mishgan’ — and Ahmed were married in the early nineties and were together for eight years until their divorce.

While the intervening years seem to have taken their toll on Ahmed, it is clear that Mezhgan has undergone an utterly astonishing transformation from traditional Muslim wife to astute businesswoman with access to some of Hollywood’s most powerful people.

Ahmed’s nephew expressed admiration — and some bafflement — at what she’d achieved. John Niazi, 27, said: ‘I couldn’t believe it when I first heard Mezhgan was with Simon Cowell.

‘But then I was also surprised when she got married to my uncle. Back then, she was about 20, and she was the prettiest Afghan girl I’d ever seen. She was like a supermodel, really beautiful, and my uncle was an average Joe, more than ten years older than her.

“Why would they marry? Maybe money. My uncle was pretty well off. He was driving the latest Mercedes and his rug business was doing well. Simon Cowell isn’t that good-looking either, but then again he’s fabulously wealthy.”

The relationship is believed to have started last summer, a year after Cowell broke up with Terri Seymour, his last long-term girlfriend.

— Daily Mail