Liam Payne held a poignant hope for his son Bear, as the troubled singer consistently took steps to get his life back on track. The devastating news of the 31 year old’s tragic death in October is made even more heart-wrenching by his recent attempts to find inner peace.
The One Direction star had sought help for his substance abuse issues through rehab and was even creating new music, hoping to channel the talent that shot him to stardom in his teens. His life was tragically cut short in a horrifying incident where he fell from a hotel balcony in Argentina, leaving fans worldwide in shock.
Liam, who shared his son with Girls Aloud’s Cheryl Cole, co-parented successfully with her. Cheryl faced the distressing task of informing their seven year old son Bear about his father’s passing.
Both parents had one wish for their son – to lead as normal a life as possible. Cheryl has always kept her son’s identity private, ensuring his face is hidden in the rare social media posts she shares, reports the Mirror.
Liam had previously spoken about their parenting plans, always commending Cheryl for being such a “natural” mother. When asked about how they protected Bear on the Diary of a CEO podcast, Liam admitted it’s been “tricky”.
He explained to Steven: “This is a tricky one! I think his mum’s hoping he’s going to become some sort of yoga person. His mum’s very chill these days. He’s got the best advice from the parents around him in the long run, I guess. I dunno… obviously we’ve protected his identity to start off with. That’s not being pretentious or anything other than the fact I want to give him a chance to be Bear first before he has to be your mum and dad are so-and-so. I made my choice to be where I was at 14/15 so I figure he can make his own choice then too.”
“We’ll have a good discussion about it, a long discussion because I know what effects that can have too. But I would never stop him from doing something he wanted to do. I’d let him know the risks and I’d tell him what was going to happen better than that,” he continued. When it comes to his son’s future career, the devoted father expressed his desire for Bear to find “something that he enjoys doing every day. And I say that lightly because I think everything that you do – depending on what kind of person you are – becomes annoying at a point. I used to think my dad’s job was the best job ever, building aeroplanes like adult Lego, but my dad’s like, ‘Do not end up in that bloody factory.'”
Cheryl shared her hopes for son Bear to enjoy a normal upbringing away from the limelight in a candid 2023 chat with British Vogue. She recounted a heart-to-heart with Bear, who’s starting to grasp his parents’ celebrity status, revealing: “I don’t want people recognising him on the street.”
She added, “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’.”
Despite their fame, both Cheryl and Liam Payne have kept Bear’s face out of the public eye, although Liam has previously noted in a People magazine interview back in 2020 that Bear is the spitting image of him, saying: “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!'”
Get the latest celebrity gossip and telly news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily Showbiz newsletter here.