Cheryl Cole: Age, Husbands, X-Factor And More
Who is Cheryl Cole? What is Cheryl Cole’s age? How many relationships has she had? Who are her family? What is her controversy with X-Factor?
Cheryl Ann Tweedy or Cheryl Cole is an English singer and TV personality. She is also a fashion icon, philanthropist, author, and songwriter.
Cheryl Cole’s Age And Her Beginnings…
Image Source/Hello Magazine
Born in June 1983, Cheryl Cole’s age is 36 and she hails from Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
Her venture into dance began when she was still a kid. She was enrolled at The Royal Ballet’s summer school when she was just nine years old.
A Fun Fact: She hated her time there!
“Hated it. Squashed the dream. It wasn’t me. I didn’t fit in. It was the first time I’d ever felt…class.
“I didn’t understand it. I just knew it was…different. And that they were…looking down their noses. If you like. But I couldn’t express it.”
She had also won a few modelling competitions and appeared in advertisements during her childhood.
Image Source/OK! Magazine
However, she started shining as an icon in the entertainment industry in 2002 when she auditioned for a TV reality show Popstars: The Rivals. She was chosen after her singing performance where she sang ‘Have You Ever’.
The reality show aims to form a boy band and a girl band to compete for the Christmas number one spot on the UK Singles Chart.
And guess what? Cheryl was the first one to be chosen to form the girl group ‘Girls Aloud’ with Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh.
The Impressive Successes Of ‘Girls Aloud’
Image Source/Closer Magazine
‘Girls Aloud’ was having the time of their lives with their debut single ‘Sound of the Underground’ peaking at number one on the UK Singles Chart.
They also debut their album ‘Sound of the Underground’ in 2003 and other albums include ‘The Sound of Girls Aloud’ and ‘Out of Control’.
Remarkably, both of these albums entered the chart at number one and ‘The Sound of Girls Aloud’ sold more than one million copies!
More Impressive Records And Recognition
Image Source/1ZOOM
‘Girls Aloud’ achieved nationwide recognition and broke many records within a very short period of time.
Some of the records made are Guinness World Records as ‘Most Successful Reality TV Group’ in 2007, Guinness World Records as ‘Most Consecutive Top Ten Entries in the UK by a Female Group’ in 2008 and Guinness World Records as ‘Most Successful Reality TV Group’ in 2011.
The group went on to become the UK’s biggest selling girl group of the century with over 4.3 million singles sales and four million albums sold!
What a remarkable feat by the newbies!
The Powerful Kick Start Of Cheryl Cole’s Solo Career
The impressive success of ‘Girls Aloud’ made it easy for the girls to embark on their solo career.
Source/Cheryl Official
Cheryl Cole started her journey as a solo artist with her debut solo album titled ‘3 Words’ in October 2009.
The lead single from the album introduced her to the international charts. Apart from topping the UK chart, ‘Fight for This Love’ also entered the top 10 in France, Germany and the Netherlands.
Adding to the success, her album was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry and sold over 1 million copies!
Her other albums are:
- Messy Little Raindrops
- A Million Lights
- Only Human
Her most recent release is a single titled ‘Let You’.
Source/Cheryl Official
Her Other Equally Remarkable And Controversial Professional Ventures…
Apart from her mind blowing success in singing, Cheryl had also ventured into other areas that brought her further success and reach as well as controversies.
In 2008, Cheryl became a judge on the UK’s X-Factor mentoring Alexandra Burke and Joe McElderry. However, the stint was quite a short one as she soon resigned in 2011. She then joined the American version of the show.
This time, it was even a shorter stint as she stayed only until the auditions stage.
She was back in the UK’s X-Factor and stayed for Season 11 and Season 12.
What Happened Between Her And Simon Cowell In X-Factor?
Image Source/Evening Standard
Apparently, there was a feud going on between Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole.
Cheryl was fired from the US version of X-Factor by its executive producer Richard Holloway.
After which, she sued and received a settlement out of court.
According to Simon Cowell,
“When I saw her I didn’t recognise her. Literally. the hair and outfit were crazy. Just totally crazy.
“She’d put on a bit of weight, but not loads. that wasn’t the issue.”
“The only way I can describe it is that it wasn’t Cheryl sitting in that seat. She’d lost her confidence.”
Cheryl countered saying,
“I became so desensitised, you could say terrible things to me and I wouldn’t even think about it.
But, she also agreed that Simon was not at fault for firing here from the show.
“I wasn’t well in the head when that was going on.
“So it wasn’t going to work. But he wasn’t right not to tell me to my face.”
Her 2019 TV Venture…
Source/BBC
Earlier this year, she joined BBC One’s dance competition The Greatest Dancer as a dance captain.
And Yes, She Has Also Written Two Books!
‘Through My Eyes’ and ‘Cheryl: My Story’ revolves around Cheryl’s life and saw great response from readers.
‘Cheryl: My Story’ topped The Sunday Times Bestseller list and sold about 2,000 copies per day for five months after its release.
A Peek Into Cheryl Cole’s Relationships And Husbands
Cheryl has been infamous for her long list of boyfriends and husbands.
Zeroing into husbands, her first husband was Ashley Cole and her second husband was Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini.
Image Source/Independent
She married footballer Ashley Cole in 2006 but ended it in 2010 after being cheated on multiple times.
After the divorce, she dated Derek Hough and Tre Holloway before getting married once again.
Image Source/Evening Standard
This time, she married French restaurateur Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini.
Shockingly, she married him only after three months of knowing each other in a secret beach wedding.
Unfortunately, the couple broke up due to the fame that followed Cheryl Cole.
According to Jean-Bernard,
“I married someone who was famous, I was thrust into this mad world.
“I didn’t like it.”
She Has A Baby Boy With Liam Payne
Cheryl and Liam met during the audition of X-Factor in 2009; Cheryl as the judge and Liam as the contestant.
Image Source/The Sun
Just after Cheryl’s second divorce, the couple made their relationship public in 2016.
Despite a 10-year age gap between them, the couple had a baby boy named Bear Grey Payne in 2017.
A Fun Fact: It was Cheryl who name him Bear.
Liam said,
“The reason she chose Bear, in the end, was that Bear is a name that when you leave a room you won’t forget. And I like that. When I look at him he is Bear.”
Just last year, they announced their separation but reaffirmed that their baby will still be their priority.
According to Liam,
“Cheryl and I are sad to announce that we are going our separate ways.
“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.”
How Did Having A Baby Change Her?
Cheryl opened up that having a baby altered her perception of fame and life.
“’Having Bear has helped. I have a different purpose now. Before, I would work and work and work, and that was the main subject in my life — and now he is.”
A Caring Philanthropist
Despite her shortcomings with life partners, Cheryl has done exceptionally well when it comes to giving back to the community through community service.
Image Source/Manchester Evening News
For starters, she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of Comic Relief in 2009 with Kimberley Welsh, Alesha Dixon, Fearne Cotton, Denise Van Outen, Chris Moyles, Ben Shepherd, Ronan Keating and Gary Barlow.
Their successful summit climb raised a whopping £3.5 million.
Two years after, Cheryl launched her own charity called The Cheryl Cole Foundation to help disadvantaged young people from her home region.
In 2015, she launched her second charity called Cheryl’s Trust to raise £2 million to build a centre for 4,000 youngsters back home.
Both the charity teams with The Prince’s Charity and she said,
“I’m proud of where I grew up but I’m only too aware of the challenges that young people face. Opportunities often seem pretty limited and I saw so many friends who had loads of potential fall into a life of alcohol, drugs and crime.
“Too many young people are wasting their lives away because they feel they have no one to turn to.
“My life could have turned out very differently… I know how lucky I am. That’s why I am raising money to open the new Centre in Newcastle.
“I want to give back and help young people who feel like they’ll never achieve anything reach their dreams and live a happy life.”
Certainly, such an endearing thought, gesture and effort deserves a big round of applause!
Cheryl Cole’s Words Of Wisdom
HAPPY PRIDE MY LOVES!!! 🌈 🙌🏼🥰 I’m SO excited to be performing for you and celebrating with you all at @ManchesterPride on August 25th💃🏻👯♀ pic.twitter.com/iRYvVg8Svn
— Cheryl (@CherylOfficial) June 27, 2019
It happens that Cheryl has left around little bits and pieces of her sound wisdom, some of which are from her book!
Some are funny, some are relatable and some are downright motivational.
Let’s find out…
“I believe in soulmates, yes, but I believe you also have to work at love. I happen to believe your soulmate doesn’t have to be your partner – your soulmate could be your best friend, your sibling, it doesn’t have to be the person you marry.”
“[Marriage] a bond for life, and whether you’re gay or straight, it makes no difference to being married. What marriage stands for is that you love that person… You want to commit yourself to that person forever.”
Image Source/Pinterest
“I’m like any other woman – my weight fluctuates. I have a pair of jeans one size bigger than the other just in case that week I’m a little bit heavier.”
Well, if that isn’t relatable!
“Yes, definitely I do feel betrayed, but I’ve got to take everything that’s happened and learn from it. I accept that that’s a chapter of my life that’s finished. And I’ve just got to be grateful that I’ve got so many good things going on. I have.”
Last but not least…
“Don’t believe the things you tell yourself late at night.”
