Cheryl’s having regrets as her big comeback fizzles
Her comeback hasn’t been everything she hoped for
She’s been preparing for her return to the music world for the past six months, but as her new single Love Made Me Do It only scraped into the Top 20 last week, Cheryl has also had to deal with the public reaction to her new look.
As heat told you last week, her new video drew claims from some fans that she’d had Botox and fillers. During a recent TV appearance to mark Prince Charles’s 70th birthday, some even compared her look to surgery obsessed Michael Jackson. Although her face appeared back to normal when she was pictured at a radio interview, we’re told Cheryl – who has always denied having anything done and recently insisted that her face has simply changed post-pregnancy – is mortified about the backlash.
“She feels humiliated by the comments,” says heat’s insider. “She wanted everyone to focus on her music and instead they’re commenting on what she looks like. She knows she isn’t looking her best at times, but she insists it’s down to lack of sleep and looking after Bear. She was anxious about the comeback, anyway, and this has made things worse.
“Fortunately, she’s surrounded by supportive people who are telling her not to listen to any of the criticism. They’ve told her it’s just haters and to ignore them as much as possible, but some people have really been having a go – she’s been getting really vocal about the ‘face shamers’. But it has really affected her, especially in the run up to The X Factor.” Cheryl sang Love Made Me
Do It on Sunday’s show and the insider says she had prepared herself for a backlash about her performance, but the comments about her looks just added an extra level of stress. “She was concerned other celebs were laughing at her – and that there would be loads of gossip,” we’re told. “She was worried Simon [Cowell] would have a pop, too
– he likes to make the digs.”
In a recent interview, Cheryl claimed that, following Bear’s birth 20 months ago, she no longer cared what she looked like, saying, “I feel like I’m better than who I was. I don’t care what my body looks like in that respect. I’m not obsessive about it. I created a life!”
Despite this, we’re told she has been working out two hours a day to ensure she looks her best, so she can cope with the scrutiny she faces being back in the limelight. “She is doing an hour of yoga every morning, and then doing 30 minutes of weights or toning, and then another 30 minutes of cardio or boxing at night. She likes to get her sweat on – she says she needs it mentally to shake off her stress,” the insider reveals. “She wants to look the best she can and thinks the petite look really suits her. [Her mum] Joan thinks she could do with putting on a few pounds, but Cheryl says that while she’s promoting her music, she needs to be in tip-top shape. For six days a week, she is more or less eating just plant-based food. She’s been following a nutritionist’s plan to ensure she gets all the nutrients she needs.”
And while Cheryl – who split from baby daddy Liam Payne in July – is loving performing her music again, we’re told she’s finding being back in the public eye very hard. As well as the scrutiny, she has had to deal with ex-husband Jeanbernard Fernandezversini hitting back at her claims in an interview last week that Liam was the only man who didn’t cheat on her.
“If I had cheated, it would have been on the court papers,” he fumed. “It’s the same thing with her weight loss. That wasn’t my fault, either, but she needs to blame somebody.”
She’s also struggling being away from Bear. Last week, she revealed she had “lived on adrenaline and anxiety for so many years” and had undergone therapy soon after her son was born. Our insider adds, “The past couple of weeks have been exciting, but also overwhelming for her. At first, she was loving life back in the spotlight, but all this scrutiny about her looks, coupled with the fact she has to leave Bear, makes her question if it was all worth it.” Cheryl admitted she was at her happiest when Bear was born and she shut herself away from the world. “When I think back to the early days of new motherhood, I was in such a bubble of love, I actually don’t think I saw anybody else,” she revealed, before admitting it may have caused Liam to get jealous. She also said she would “spend every breathing moment” with her son, but acknowledged she needed a life of her own as well.
“There was no need for Cheryl to try to be a pop star again – it’s not like she needs the money and she could easily be a stay-at-home mum,” says the source. “She felt it would give her something else in her life. But she forgot how much pressure there is, and it seems to have got worse since she last released music four years ago.
“She doesn’t know if she’s got the energy to cope with it all, and she sometimes wonders if she made the right decision.” ■
‘She’d forgotten how much pressure there is’