Liam Payne and Cheryl Cole were closely united in their approach to parenting their son Bear.
Tragically, the beloved former X Factor icon, Liam, died at the age of 31 after a harrowing incident where he fell from the third floor of an Argentine hotel last month. His grieving family are currently struggling with the task of repatriating his remains amidst reports suggesting he may have fainted before suffering the fatal fall.
Liam leaves behind his loving family and seven year old son Bear, whom he shared with his ex-partner Cheryl. The couple, who separated in 2018, consistently demonstrated a harmonious commitment to co-parenting their child, uniting especially over one particular matter.
In a revealing moment back in 2017, Liam spoke about the couple’s privacy policy concerning Bear, mentioning at an event how they had captured countless photos of their son yet chose not to share them publicly.
He explained: “[Cheryl] has her rest time bonding with Bear at the start. She’s an incredible, a natural mum. We take a million pictures of Bear but we want him to be able to decide what he wants to share when he’s older.”
In a heartfelt conversation with British Vogue in 2023, Cheryl discussed her desires for Bear’s upbringing, particularly her wishes for him to have an ordinary life away from the limelight.
She revealed: “I don’t want people recognising him on the street. But he’s twigged that I’m famous. The other day he said, ‘How lucky am I to have famous parents? ‘ I said, ‘It doesn’t matter’. He goes: “Yeah, but it’s pretty cool’.”
Liam had disclosed that he and Cheryl have taken measures to shield their son Bear from the harsh realities of fame.
Speaking on The Diary Of A CEO podcast with Stephen Bartlett, he said: “Obviously, we protected his identity to start off with, and that’s not being pretentious or anything other than the fact that I want to give him a chance to be Bear first before he has to be, ‘Oh, your mum and dad are so and so’ you know. And I made my choice to be where I was at 14 [or] 15, so I figure he can make his own choice then too.”
While both Liam and Cheryl have chosen not to reveal Bear’s face, it is believed that he bears a striking resemblance to his father, as Liam revealed in a 2020 interview with People magazine.
He said: “He looks exactly like me, which is very strange. When family members see baby pictures of me now, they say, Oh wow, Bear looks really great there!'”
In 2018, a year after Bear’s birth, the couple announced their separation after two and a half years together but pledged to remain close for the sake of their son.
Their statement read: “We 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.”
In 2022, Liam opened up about the precious moments he spends with his son, explaining: “I see him two times a week, three times a week sometimes. And I make sure when I see him, he has 100 per cent of my time.
I make sure that I’m not on my phone or d***ing around somewhere else. So, I like to give him those moments and it’s important, he needs that in his life, he needs his dad in his life, and I’m happy he looks at me like a superhero, and I’m hoping to keep it that way.”
