Cheryl: I don’t want to find a new man – they all let me down
‘My son is the man of my dreams’
AFTER two divorces, public betrayals and a split from her much younger boyfriend, it’s fair to say she has had a rather turbulent love life.
Now Cheryl – who has reverted to maiden name Tweedy after a phase of being known simply by her Christian name – admits that ‘every man’ in her life has let her down, leaving her with ‘zero’ interest in a new relationship.
In a frank interview, the pop star said she had been disappointed by every important man in her life, including her father, brother and ex-husbands.
‘I think I love too easily,’ the 35-yearold admitted. ‘I think I tolerate too much. I don’t set clear enough boundaries in the beginning.’
The former Girls Aloud star said she was vulnerable to being treated badly, and that it happened time and time again. But she has finally found contentment, she said, thanks to her son Bear, who was born in March last year.
Calling her son ‘ the man of her dreams’, she said she would happily be single for ever. ‘I do seriously think I might be, I do,’ she told Stylist.
‘I would never ever say never, obviously, but I have zero – I tell you, zero – desire to start up a new relationship.’
Bear’s father is former One Direction star Liam Payne, who at 25 is ten years her junior. He toured the world promoting his solo career for months on end, with the couple announcing their split in July. While he embarked on his whirlwind promotional tour, Cheryl went into therapy for a year as she battled anxiety, home alone with Bear.
She has been married twice, once to footballer Ashley Cole – who was said to have had affairs with three different women – and then to restaurateur Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini.
But after years of heartache, she revealed that having her son made her finally feel happy and content, transforming her into a ‘different person’.
‘I feel like I’ve had two lives – me before Bear, and me with Bear,’ she explained. ‘I’ve always had a shyness and that’s gone. I was always floating around, just not sure of anything, and now I’m certain. I feel like a woman now. I’m not looking for anything any more. I’m whole. I’ve got the man of my dreams.’
Gushing over her son, Cheryl admitted he sleeps beside her every night in bed. She continued: ‘I’m going to get mum- shamed, aren’t I? But yes, he does. Best thing in the world. I know I’m making a rod for my own back. But at the same time, I don’t judge anybody that does the crying-out thing.
‘I read about other people being mum- shamed and I think, get a life, deal with your own kids, why are you interfering in everyone else’s?’
Cheryl said her former boyfriend Payne had wanted to be a father from 16, and was happy to have a family but ‘it didn’t work out’. The former couple first met on The X Factor in 2008 when he was just 14 and Cheryl was a judge.
At 23, a few years into her Girls Aloud fame, Cheryl married footballer Ashley Cole. There were accusations that he had multiple affairs, but she stood by him until they divorced in 2010.
In 2014, she married French restaurateur Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini just three months after they began dating. They divorced two years later.
‘I’ve had too many surnames,’ she admitted. ‘That’s just the crazy choices I’ve made along the way.’
In her latest single, her first in four years, the lyrics provide an insight into her traumatic love life. Love Made Me Do It includes lines such as ‘I’m such a sucker, I fall in love with every f*****’.
But motherhood had now put her in a ‘bubble of love’, she told the magazine.