Simon Cowell and Cheryl put their differences aside as they reunited at the funeral of Liam Payne on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old singer, who passed away on October 16, was laid to rest yesterday in a poignant ceremony in Amersham which was attended by both Cheryl, 41, and the 65-year-old music mogul.
Despite their complicated history, the pair were united in their grief, having both had close personal connections to the former One Direction star. Their well-documented feud, which began in 2011, was sparked by Cheryl’s abrupt departure from X Factor USA, just weeks into her new role, the Mirror reports.
At the time, Cheryl was reeling from her split from Ashley Cole, and Simon felt she was too fragile to cope with the demands of the show. Reflecting on their falling out in a 2014 interview with Radio Times, Simon admitted: “We were all wound up. There was so much expectation on the show in America and I definitely wasn’t myself. I was uptight.”
He also made some biting comments about Cheryl’s appearance, claiming she was almost unrecognisable. He said: “When I saw her I didn’t recognise her. Literally. The hair and outfit were crazy. Just totally crazy. I asked her manager, ‘What’s she wearing, what’s happened to her hair?’
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“He was defensive about it. I haven’t a clue why she turned up like that. 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 then sent Simon a “horrible” text, and later reflected: “In hindsight he was right because I wasn’t myself. He wasn’t himself either. He was under a lot of strain because it was a new venture. But he handled it wrongly – he got somebody else to sack me.
“I didn’t want to talk to him at the time. I didn’t want to talk to anybody. The sacking came on top of everything else, it was just the cherry on the cake.”
After a long period of silence, Cheryl admitted to Elle: “I went through hell and it literally drove me mad. I became so desensitised, you could say terrible things to me and I wouldn’t even think about it.”
However, the ice thawed when Simon played Cupid between Cheryl and Liam. At a dinner at Simon’s house, Liam confessed he found Cheryl “hot.”
Seizing the moment, Simon asked Cheryl for her thoughts on the younger star, which led to the blossoming of their romance. They later went on to welcome their son Bear in March 2017.
Bear has brought Simon and Cheryl closer together, with Simon revealing that Bear gets along splendidly with his own son, Eric.
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