Music mogul Simon Cowell’s ex-lover Terri Seymour’s request for a temporary restraining order against the woman who tried to strangle her at a taping of the American Idol finale last week has been granted.

Janice Thibodeaux has been charged with misdemeanour assault after attacking the TV presenter, reports the Daily Express.

Thibodeaux said that she decided to attack Seymour because she was upset after watching Cowell jokingly choking fellow judge Paula Abdul on the finale of the hit U.S. TV show.

In the application for a restraining order, made at LA’s County Superior Court, Seymour says that former security guard Thibodeaux “put her in a headlock, wrenched her neck and choked her with the full force of her 200lb frame”.

The 35-year-old insists that she could have been “injured or killed” if Thibodeaux had not been restrained by nearby cops.

In the papers, Seymour also said the woman was “feeding from the publicity of the attack” and feared the fan “will again assault and harass” her.