How Liam Payne met the future mother of his son, Cheryl Cole while ...

News of singer Liam Payne's death has left fans across the world in shock. Payne allegedly died as he fell from the balcony of a multi-storied building on Tuesday night in Bueno Aires, Argentina where he was holidaying since early October. 

Payne's rise to stardom as a band member of One Direction was played out in public. He was a teenager when he first auditioned for the reality show X Factor.

In 2008, 14 year old Payne met the 'future mother' to his son, Cheryl Cole while auditioning for X Factor. Cole was one of the judges alongside Simon Cowell, Dannii Minogue and Louis Walsh. 

Payne was not selected that year but made Cole blush with his rendition of “Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra. As he crooned the ballad, he winked at Cole. After completing his performance, Cole had gushed over his talent and called him “really cute.” 

The pair started their romance years later though.

Liam Payne and ex Cheryl Cole first crossed paths in 2008 but didn’t start their romance until much later. 

“Let’s address the elephant in the room,” Payne said while rewatching his first audition in a segment for Esquire in May 2020. “Obviously, the future mother of my son is sitting in that chair. This is now an episode of How I Met Your Mother, so that’s enough of that I think.”

Also read: When Liam Payne called his band One Direction a 'little bit toxic'

While Payne didn’t make it through the first time, he returned to the show two years later where Cole remained a judge. He got selected this time, and became a member of One Direction, which went on to make boyband history.

While the two knew each other for a while, Cole and Payne’s connection didn’t turn romantic until nearly a decade later. The pair were first linked in 2016 after Cole’s split from ex-husband Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini.

In May 2016, the couple made their red carpet-debut together at the Global Gift Gala in Paris. Cole was honored with the Global Gift Philanthropist Award. Payne took to X to gush about her achievement. “So proud of her tonight such a special award #GlobalGiftGala,” he captioned a selfie of him and Cole with her award.

In 2017, Cole and Payne welcomed their first child, son Bear. "On Wednesday 22nd March Liam and I became parents to an incredibly beautiful, healthy baby boy, weighing 7lb 9 and looking like a dream,” Cole wrote via Instagram at the time. “Although he still doesn’t have a name he is already stealing hearts. We are all madly in love and overwhelmingly happy with our little arrival. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers around the world. A day that now has a different meaning to me forever ????” the couple shared a joint statement on social media announcing the birth of their son. 

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But Payne and Cole's romance did not last long. The former couple announced their split in July 2018. The duo remained amicable as they co-parented son Bear. Less than one year after their split, Cole opened up about how she and Payne were tackling co-parenting. 

“[Liam is] much softer than me. But it is what it is, and I’m OK about it,” she said in an interview with The Telegraph. “When you have a baby, you are not consumed with just thinking about yourself. It’s your responsibility to keep things settled and happy, so you make the best of everything. And we have.”