Cheryl Cole: All the tragedies Girls Aloud star Cheryl Cole has been forced to endure | Explainer

Cheryl has been in the spotlight ever since she walked on stage more than 20 years ago to audition for the UK talent show Popstars: The Rivals.

The singer – who has also been known as Cheryl Tweedy and Cheryl Cole throughout her career – went on to win the competition as part of girl band Girls Aloud.

But while fame and fortune followed, she’s been forced to overcome a mountain of tragedies in her personal life that no one should ever endure.

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Cheryl Tweedy was born on June 30, 1983, in the English city of Newcastle upon Tyne to mum Joan Cunningham and dad Garry Tweedy.

Her mother had three older children from a previous relationship and two children with Tweedy before they separated when Cheryl was 11.

Cheryl grew up on council estates and first showed an interest in dancing as a child. At seven years old, she appeared on a television advertisement for British Gas.

She later competed on UK TV dancing shows before her big break came at 19.

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In 2002, Cheryl auditioned for the reality television show Popstars: The Rivals, which created a boy band and a girl group to compete for the Christmas number one spot on the UK singles chart.

She was one of 10 female contestants chosen by a panel of judges that included former member of the Spice Girls, Geri Halliwell, to go through to the finals. She went on to become the first contestant to qualify for the girl group, which eventually became Girls Aloud.

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The line-up also included Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. Their debut single, Sound of the Underground, made it to number one on the UK charts by Christmas.

Their first album of the same name was released in 2003 and entered the charts at number two, and the girls soon became household names.

Cheryl’s marriage to Ashley Cole

It wasn’t long before Cheryl caught the eye of a famous footballer.

According to Cheryl’s bandmate, Kimberley Walsh, Cheryl met Ashley Cole while playing tennis on the courts of the luxury unit development they both called home.

They started dating in September 2004 and by June the next year, the then-Arsenal football player popped the question while holidaying in Dubai.

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The couple married in a star-studded ceremony on July 15, 2006, covered exclusively by OK!. Cheryl became known professionally as Cheryl Cole.

While she kept busy recording and touring with Girls Aloud, and later as a solo artist, his career as a footballer with Arsenal and later, Crystal Palace and Chelsea, meant they were often apart.

In 2008, Cheryl’s star rose further when she became a judge on The X Factor UK. But stories soon emerged that Cole was cheating on her.

In her 2013 memoir, Cheryl Cole: My Story, Cheryl detailed screaming at Cole after learning he had been unfaithful early in the marriage.

She wrote, “‘I hope you enjoyed it!’ I screamed. ‘I hope she was worth it! It’s the end of your marriage!’

“‘You don’t understand what you’ve done. It’s f—ed!’ After hours of me ranting, screaming and crying uncontrollably, I was exhausted.”

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She took him back, but then in 2010 fresh reports of infidelity emerged.

Cheryl announced her separation from Cole in February 2010 and filed for divorce two months later citing his “unreasonable behaviour”.

The divorce papers stated that Cole had admitted being unfaithful with a number of women.

Years later, she confessed that she struggled with fame and the amount of media focus on her personal life at the time.

“It was all just like a perfect storm,” she told The Independent in 2023.

“I was caught up in it, I couldn’t get out of it. It was too much for me. There was too much pressure and that made it less enjoyable. And it was constant.”

After their divorce, she continued to be known as Cheryl Cole until she remarried in 2012. She later began using the mononym Cheryl professionally.

Cheryl’s marriage to Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini

Cheryl married French restaurateur Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini in July 2014 after dating for three months.

The two reportedly met at the Cannes Film Festival and wed on the West Indies island of Mustique.

The couple split 18 months later.

Cheryl’s relationship with Liam Payne, the father of her son Bear

Cheryl first laid eyes on Liam Payne when he was a contestant on The X Factor UK when he was just 14 and she was 24.

He returned to the show two years later and was placed in the group that became One Direction. 

After making it big, the band returned to perform on the 2015 final of The X Factor UK, where Payne again encountered Cheryl.

It’s unclear when they started dating but in March 2016, he shared a photo of them together on Instagram and days later the pair were photographed out and about in London together.

By the end of the year, Cheryl and Payne were expecting and on March 22, 2017, they welcomed their first and only child together, a son named Bear.

However, by July the next year the relationship was over. Despite their split, Cheryl and Payne continued to co-parents Bear amicably.

Cheryl’s relationship with Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding

There was more heartache in store for Cheryl when her Girls Aloud bandmate Sarah Harding died on September 5, 2021 after a battle with breast cancer.

Cheryl and Harding were close friends for more than 20 years and spent time together shortly before Harding died.

Cheryl told MailOnline in 2023 that Harding’s death changed her.

“A lot of conversations we had before she left really sparked a different perspective for me, and I’ll carry that,” she said.

“She wasn’t ready to leave and I think, ‘Well, I’m still here. I’ve got the gift of life to still live, and I’ll do it with her in mind.’ It does shift a lot of things in your own heart.”

Cheryl’s strength for son Bear after Liam Payne’s death

After maintaining a good co-parenting relationship throughout the years, Cheryl faced one of the biggest tragedies of her life when Payne, 31, died after falling from the third storey balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 16.

In a post to her Instagram several days later, Cheryl, 41, touched on her own grief in a heartbreaking message that included a black and white photo of Payne with their son Bear as an infant.

“As I try to navigate this earth shattering event, and work through my own grief at this indescribably painful time, I’d like to kindly remind everyone that we have lost a human being,” she wrote.

“Liam was not only a pop star and celebrity, he was a son, a brother, an uncle, a dear friend and a father to our seven-year-old son. A son that now has to face the reality of never seeing his father again.”

Cheryl continued: “What is troubling my spirit the most is that one day Bear will have access to the abhorrent reports and media exploitation we have seen in the past two days.

“It is breaking my heart further that I cannot protect him from that in his future.”

Cheryl was supported by her Girls Aloud bandmates at Payne’s funeral in November 2024, where he was finally laid to rest one month after his shock death.

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