Simon Cowell steps out for some fresh air with girlfriend Lauren Silverman in Malibu

Simon Cowell and his girlfriend Lauren Silverman stepped out for some fresh air on Friday as they enjoyed a family stroll along a beach near their Malibu home with their dogs.

The music mogul, 60, kept things casual for the family outing, where they were joined by their son Eric, six, and Lauren’s son from her previous marriage to Andrew Silverman, Adam, 11.

The outing came just hours after new legislation in the state warned residents to ‘stay at home’ in a bid to tackle the current COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis that has swept the globe.

The couple kept their spirits up amid the pandemic as they chatted and shared a joke together while walking their pooches, Squiddly, Diddly, and Freddie, who previously belonged to his mother Julie before her death in 2016.

Also on the walk was the family’s rescue dog Daisy, who they adopted from Barbados. 

The Britain’s Got Talent judge wrapped up in a black padded jacket and T-shirt, while opting for a more relaxed look with a pair of tracksuit bottoms, slip-on shoes as well as his signature black aviator shades.

Meanwhile, Lauren looked typically chic in a striped jumper which she accessorised with a straw fedora and a pair of glamorous sunglasses as well as a grey scarf wrapped around her neck.

Lauren put on a leggy display in a pair of tiny denim shorts and completed her beach attire with a pair of metallic flip flops, while carrying a bottle of Fiji water to stay hydrated in her hand.

Little Eric mirrored his dad’s relaxed look in a pair of grey tracksuit bottoms and flipflops.

California’s governor on Thursday issued an unprecedented statewide ‘stay at home order’ directing the state’s 40 million residents to hunker down in their homes for the foreseeable future in the face of the fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic. 

Governor Gavin Newsom’s directive marks the largest and most sweeping government clampdown yet in the worsening public health crisis brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak, which he predicted could infect more than half the state within eight weeks.

‘We are confident the people of California will abide by it, they will meet this moment,’ Newsom, a Democrat in his first term as governor of the nation’s most populous state, said at a late-afternoon news briefing from the state capital in Sacramento.

‘They’ll step up as they have over the last number of weeks to protect themselves, to protect their families and to protect the broader community in this great state and the world we reside in.’ 

Newsom said exceptions to the stay-at-home rule would be granted for residents to make necessary trips to grocery stores, pharmacies, doctors and in some cases work.

He did not give an end date for the order but suggested that it would last for at least eight weeks.

The governor said the order was essential in light of modeling by experts that showed roughly 56 per cent of the state’s residents, or 25 million people, would contract the respiratory illness in the next eight weeks. 

Such numbers would require nearly 20,000 more hospital beds than the state could provide.

Already more than 1,000 Californians have been confirmed as infected and 18 have died, the third largest death toll in the United States behind only Washington state and New York.

California is home to some 40 million people, including an estimated 108,000 homeless.