Cheryl Cole Shares Unseen Photo of Liam Payne With Son Bear After Singer's Death

Cheryl Cole is sharing memories of late ex Liam Payne.

Two days after the One Direction alum’s tragic death at 31, the former X Factor judge shared a previously-unseen photo of Liam with their only child, Bear, on Instagram Oct. 18.

In the black-and-white image, taken when Bear, now 7, was a baby, a shirtless Liam is seen laying in bed with his hand resting next to his young son. He stares toward the baby, whose face is turned away from the camera.

Along with the heartbreaking pic, the “Fight For This Love” singer addressed the “abhorrent reports and media exploitation” surrounding her former partner’s Oct. 16 sudden passing.

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

Over the years, the former couple—who dated from 2016 to 2018—have shared occasional glimpses of their 7-year-old, though they’ve taken care to shield him from public view.

“I want Bear to have a normal childhood,” Cheryl, 41, told Vogue UK in November 2023. “I don’t want people recognizing him on the street.”

Liam also previously spoke about how he and the Girls Aloud member considered their own experiences with stardom when raising their son.

“For both of us,” he told Access Hollywood in 2020, “we think there’s beauty to this side of being famous and being in this position, and doing something that you love.”

At the same time, Liam—who rose to fame at 17 as a member of the boy band—also reflected on the downfalls of being a celebrity.

“I think you worry for that in your child as well,” he went on, “now that you’re very close to something and you’ve experienced it and the ways it affected you.”

For a look back at Liam and Cheryl’s time together, 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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