Liam Payne's Ex Cheryl Cole Slams "Abhorrent Reports and Media Exploitation" Over Singer's Death

Cheryl Cole is working through a devastating loss.

The former girlfriend of Liam Payne—with whom she shared 7-year-old son Bear—has broken her silence after the former One Direction member died at the age of 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct. 16.

"As I try to navigate this earth shattering event," Cheryl began her message, posted to Instagram Oct. 18, "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."

"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 7 year old son," she continued. "A son that now has to face the reality of never seeing his father again. 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, who also shared a photo of Bear and Liam together, went on to send a request.

"I am begging you to consider what use some of these reports are serving," she wrote, "other than to cause further harm to everyone left behind picking up the pieces. Before you leave comments or make videos, ask yourself if you would like your own child or family to read them."

"Please give Liam the little dignity he has left in the wake of his death," she concluded, "to rest in some peace at last."

While Cheryl, 41, and Liam first met when she was a judge on the X Factor in 2010—the season in which Liam was placed in One Direction alongside bandmates Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik—it wasn’t until the pair reconnected during the band’s return to the series for a performance at the close of 2015 that sparks began to fly.

She and Liam then began dating in 2016, welcoming Bear in 2017 before they parted ways the following year.

In the years since, however, both Cheryl and Liam—who started dating girlfriend Kate Cassidy in 2022—had been candid about the ways in which they coparented their son.

As the Girls Aloud alum told The Telegraph in 2019, "Liam is a great dad. He's much softer than me. I'll be the one saying, 'Just one square of chocolate.' But Bear is so good.”

She added of the pair’s breakup, "It is what it is, and I'm okay about it. When you have a baby, you are not consumed with just thinking about yourself. It's your responsibility to keep things settled and happy, so you make the best of everything. And we have."

Liam, for his part, also spoke to navigating his relationship with Bear amid a busy life in the spotlight.

“It's not unusual for me to be in and out of his life," Liam explained to Ting in 2020. "He's a quiet and chill child. He doesn't worry about things too much."

It was a schedule that seemed to work for the coparents over the years, as the boy band alum told People in 2022, “I see him two times a week, three times a week sometime. And I make sure when I see him, he has 100 percent of my time.”

Because of the many surreal moments that come skyrocketing fame, being a dad was one of Liam’s favorites.

“I like to give him those moments and it's important, he needs that in his life, he needs his dad in his life,” he added to People. “And I'm happy he looks at me like a superhero, and I'm hoping to keep it that way.”

 

To look back on Liam and Cheryl's relationship, keep reading...

The story of Liam Payne and Cheryl Cole's romance began when he was just 14 and auditioning for what he'd call "one of the biggest music shows in the world." While his stab at solo stardom ended when he was cut during The X Factor's Judges' Houses round, the moment was certainly the start of something beautiful. 

"Let's address the elephant in the room," he cracked when revisiting the experience for Esquire's "I Hate Watching Myself" series in 2020, "the future mother of my son is sat in that chair."

Though he and the 10-years-his-senior Girls Aloud musician (who dubbed him "really cute" following his performance) wouldn't kick off their romance for nearly a decade, he joked of the audition, "This is now an episode of How I Met Your Mother, so that's enough of that I think."

When Payne returned to The X Factor stage at age 16, his version of Michael Bublé's "Cry Me a River" impressed Simon Cowell, who delivered a standing ovation, and Cole. "You've definitely got it," she declared. "Whatever it is, you got it."

Though it was not enough to propel him past the boot camp stage, judge Nicole Scherzinger floated the idea of pairing Payne with fellow auditioners Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson.

"They're just too talented to get rid of," she said in never-before-seen footage released in 2022. "They’ve got just the right look and the right charisma onstage. I think they’ll be really great in a boy band together. They're like little stars. You can’t get rid of little stars, you know? So you put them all together."

It turned out pretty okay. 

Five albums, seven American Music Awards and five years as the biggest boy band on the planet later, One Direction went home again, marking their final performance before their hiatus at the 2015 X Factor finale. 

Payne sang "History" and "Infinity" with his crew and shared a hug with Cole. 

Citing irreconcilable differences, musician Cole filed to end her second marriage to Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini, the French restauranteur she met at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014 and married three months later. 

Days after Payne sparked speculation that he was seeing Cole (briefly changing his Instagram profile picture to a photo of the two of them before reverting to a solo snap), they visited London's Salmontini restarant on March 9, 2016.

As rumors began cooking that Cole had cheated on her former husband with the musician, she clapped back on X (then Twitter). 

"If anybody believes the s--t they're reading today," she wrote in the April 16, 2016 post, "you really don't know me at all."

Turns out it was Cole's talent and giving heart that made her beautiful to Payne. Joining the Girls Aloud musician at the Global Gift Gala in Paris on May 9, 2019 to watch her receive the Global Gift Philanthropist Award, he wrote on X, alongside several kiss emojis, "So proud of her tonight."

Mum was the word when the duo worked the carpet at the St James Christmas Carol Concert in London on Nov. 29, 2016, but Cole allowed her figure-hugging dress do the talking. 

Though the pair never addressed her pregnancy, when Payne was asked by fans on social media how he was doing that December, he responded, "The happiest I could be." 

A month after Cole sorta kinda confirmed her pregnancy with a maternity shoot, the couple announced on social media that their pack had grown. 

"My close friends and family know there are very few times when I'm left speechless... wow!" he wrote on Instagram. "I'm incredibly happy to welcome our new baby boy into the world, it's a moment that I will never forget for the rest of my life and my favourite memory I have so far."

Staring at 7-pound, 9-ounce Bear Grey, "I'm completely in awe of his incredible mother and how she has been the whole way through this," he added, "she's really made my dreams come true."

Though he later admitted he fought for a more "traditional" name for his cub, "The reason she chose Bear was because Bear is a name that when you leave a room, you won't forget," he explained during a May 2017 Total Access radio interview. "And I like that." 

By May 2017, Payne had taken to calling Cole his "wife," sharing how he never predicted the story of his life would take him here. 

"Obviously I have the most beautiful girlfriend in the world, and she's absolutely amazing," he told the U.K.'s Rollacoaster magazine. "She's been my dream girl since I was younger. She's so ace."

But by the following summer, their brief romance had folded. 

"Cheryl and I are sad to announce that we are going our separate ways," he wrote in an X missive July 1, 2018. "It's been a tough decision for us to make. We still have so much love for each other as a family. Bear is our world and we ask that you respect his privacy as we navigate our way through this together." 

Cole responded with a near-identical message. 

As for the rumors her mom came between them, "I can assure you she has absolutely nothing to do with any of it," she shared on X. I am a grown woman who is capable of dealing with my own life. She is a soft and kind woman who doesn't deserve to be dragged into something that has nothing whatsoever to do with her."

Instead their issues were of the fairly common variety. 

"You know, we have our struggles," he confessed to ES magazine months earlier. "I'm not gonna sit here and say that everything's absolutely fine and dandy, because of course you go through different things, and that's what a relationship is."

Though their romance was short-lived, Payne and Cole proved they were headed in the right direction when it came to their son. 

"Liam is a great dad. He's much softer than me," Cole said in an April 2019 interview with The Telegraph. "But it is what it is, and I'm OK about it. When you have a baby, you are not consumed with just thinking about yourself. It's your responsibility to keep things settled and happy, so you make the best of everything. And we have."

Years later, Payne was signing the same tune when appearing on Logan Paul's Impaulsive podcast in 2022.

"We broke up for a reason and now, she gives me full autonomy of my own life to be able to go and do what I do and at the same time I know he's been taken care of because he's all she cares about," he gushed of his former girlfriend. "You couldn't ask for more."

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