Published: 01:00 BST, 29 August 2026 | Updated: 01:07 BST, 29 August 2026
There was a time when Cheryl Cole had her life mapped out on a road ablaze with bright lights. Young, beautiful, talented, rich and married to the love of her life, the England and Chelsea footballer Ashley Cole, she wholeheartedly embraced the fame that saw her become a ‘national treasure’, with the couple heralded as the new Posh ’n’ Becks.
She was going to be a young mum, she’d tell journalists, with whom she was always happy to engage – me included – during her Noughties heyday.
Eager and fun to chat with, she’d talk about how she wanted lots of children, but stressed she was definitely going to keep working – both as a pop star, having made her name as a contestant on talent show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002, and with Girls Aloud, before becoming a much-loved judge on The X Factor.
The public couldn’t get enough of her and she seemed to love every second of it. Decades later, it’s painfully clear that things didn’t go to plan.
Humiliated by Cole’s repeated infidelities, their marriage fell apart in 2010, as did her second, short-lived marriage in 2014 to French restaurateur Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini.
Far from the domestic bliss she’d envisaged, she found herself a single mother to her now nine-year-old son, Bear, born during a relationship with the much younger, and troubled, One Direction member Liam Payne, who fell to his death from a hotel in Buenos Aires in 2024 following a drugs and alcohol binge.
The devastating accident saw Cheryl, 43, retreat from TV, despising and eschewing all media attention, to focus on her son.
But now, almost two years since Payne’s death, she’s reportedly set for a huge comeback as a coach on the ITV talent show The Voice UK – known for its revolving chairs.
Liam Payne, who was with Cheryl from 2016 to 2018, fell to his death from a hotel in Buenos Aires in 2024 following a drugs and alcohol binge
Liam posted this tribute to his son not long before his death in 2024
She is said to be in final stage talks with the network about joining next year’s series, with filming starting next month.
Cheryl is also returning with a new campaign for skincare range Nivea, announced on Thursday, in a deal which is understood to be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Her surprise comeback has prompted many of Cheryl’s former associates to wonder just why she has decided to put herself back in the glare of the publicity she hated so much.
One source tells me she finally feels strong enough to pick up the threads of her old life, and wants to make her son proud.
