Simon Cowell may seem heartless as a judge on "American Idol," but the 48-year-old has a heart after all.

Cowell announced on Oprah Winfrey's Big Give show Monday that he gave the family of a cancer-stricken 3-year-old $162,000 to pay off their mortgage, UsMagazine.com reported.

“It’s a very basic story of a normal family whose daughter got very ill, and they had some financial problems which was relatively easy for me to sort out,” Cowell told "Extra," according to the Web site.

He told Oprah, "I never knew that doing good could feel so good," and credited her for teaching him to do good deeds.

The girl's family drives more than 100 miles from their home in Minnesota every day to get their daughter Madeline treatments for her cancer, the Web site reported.

Click here to read more on this story from UsMagazine.com.

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