Cheryl Cole: Her Story - the Unauthorized Biography (11 page)

Impatient to get a new song into the charts, Cheryl and the girls were excited about filming their second pop promo. The last shoot had been a cold and tiring day trapped in a dank warehouse, so the girls were pleased to hear that this new video would be shot in a proper studio. Sadly, the second experience didn’t prove to be any easier than the first. Not only were they forced to dress up in space-age BacoFoil-style outfits, but they had to dance in heels around a bashed-up old pink convertible from 5 a.m. through to midnight. Worse still, Cheryl was in tears, complaining that her shoes were too tight. But ever the professional, she managed to put a brave face on her pain and discomfort, knowing that making the video look good was the most important thing. She wanted this track to be a hit and she knew that the promo had to look great if she wanted the band to be given regular air time on the music channels.

And when she saw the final product, she and the girls were not disappointed. Although they still hated the outfits with a passion, they were impressed by the pacey editing, dazzling special effects and the all-round sassiness of the song. Without a doubt, the track and the cinematic video would provide them with another top-five single.

Released on 12 May 2003, the song stormed into the charts at number two, shifting 42,762 units in a week. Only R. Kelly with his slinky hit ‘Ignition’ kept them from reaching the number one spot. But the girls weren’t too upset; they were more focused on their album. And in this business, the album was the money-spinner. Released a week later, it too entered the chart at number two, behind Justin Timberlake’s
Justified
and, a month later, would be certified gold, having sold over 100,000 copies. Not bad going for a girlband formed on a reality show.

What was even better was that music critics had given the album the thumbs up. And not just critics from
Smash Hits
or
Top of the Pops
, either.
The Times
said it was ‘one of the best pop albums you’ll hear all year’, while the
Sun
also tipped several songs such as ‘Some Kind Of Miracle’ as chart-bound hits of the future. The mighty Girls Aloud had managed to achieve what had seemed impossible – to wow not only pop fans but also hardened music critics.

The girls were thrilled with the album’s success and critical reception and decided to celebrate their achievement with a flamboyant show at G-A-Y, where they performed a six-song set, dressed in saucy schoolgirl outfits. The reaction was phenomenal: the crowds of pop-loving men screamed and whistled so loudly that they could barely hear the girls sing as they ran through their set list. The special performance also gave the band a chance to stick two fingers up at boyband Busted who had recently taken a pop at them in the teen press. Spiky-haired Matt Willis had told
Sneak
magazine that Nicola was a ‘rude ginger b****’ after she had ‘blanked’ him at a gig. In response, cheeky Nicola scrawled ‘Rude Ginger B**** …
Bother’d’ on the rear of her skirt, knowing that the paparazzi would snap it and publish it the following Monday, sending a very stern message to Willis!

Although the girls had been hard at it for the early part of 2003, it didn’t mean that Cheryl was lacking in romantic interest. As early as January, it was rumoured in the
Daily Star
that Newcastle and England star Kieron Dyer had been asking Cheryl for a date.

According to a friend of the midfielder who talked to the
Daily Star
, Kieron had got hold of Cheryl’s number after seeing her on
Popstars
and started bombarding her with calls, asking her to go out with him. For a time she apparently shrugged off his advances, but then eventually agreed to attend a match where he persuaded her to walk around the pitch at half time. But Cheryl later claimed that romance hadn’t been on the cards for the two.

‘I did go to a match with Kieron and I do know him, but we didn’t go out on a date,’ she said in the
Sun.
‘I wouldn’t mind, though – I think he’s really nice. But I’m single at the moment.’

Next on the rumour mill was Ultimate Kaos star Haydon Eshun, who in 2003 was back on the celebrity scene thanks to his appearance on reality show
Reborn in the USA.
The tabloids suggested that a romance had blossomed when the pair met each other at a charity bash on Valentine’s Day. According to one reveller, Cheryl had made a beeline for Haydon and acted like a giggly schoolgirl around him. She and Haydon then supposedly spent several days holed up in a suite at the K West hotel in Kensington. But what the tabloids weren’t aware of at the time was that Cheryl had actually known Haydon years
before when she supported him and his band at Metroland, and had enjoyed a handful of dates with him.

So had romance blossomed second time round? Haydon suggested it might, telling the press that he really liked Cheryl and teasing, ‘We haven’t got back together but who knows what’s going to happen in the future?’ However, Cheryl didn’t seem as keen, dismissing the rumours out of hand, commenting to the
Daily Star
, ‘I was obsessed with him when I was nine. We’ve become friends but I’m still single.’ And she cheekily told another journalist at the
Sunday People
, ‘I keep hearing Haydon talking about us going out. He really ought to move on.’

As it turned out, Cheryl would find romance a little closer to home – with Kimberley’s gorgeous brother Adam. The only boy and second youngest of the four Walsh children, Adam was a loyal and protective brother with a naughty streak. When he wasn’t jumping out of cupboards and surprising his sisters, he’d be busy playing tricks on them. With his dashing good looks, he was never short of female attention. Although he had met Cheryl briefly during
Popstars: The Rivals
, it was only meeting her again properly for a night out with sister Kimberley and her boyfriend Martin Pemberton that Adam’s feelings were awakened. The attraction was mutual and instant and the pair of them got on straight away, spending the whole night chatting and flirting.

‘We just clicked and everything’s going great,’ Cheryl told the
Sun
at the time. ‘He’s like the male version of me and we’re getting along just fine! Although he’s living in Yorkshire and I’m always on the road, it hasn’t been too much of a nightmare to see him.’ Although Kimberley was happy that her friend Cheryl had found romance with her brother, she did admit that she was
a little apprehensive, worried how things might work out if they ever broke up. ‘It’s hard because they’re the two people I really love,’ she said. ‘If anything goes wrong, it’s going to be awful.’ Luckily for all concerned, when Adam and Cheryl did eventually split a few weeks later, they did so as friends.

But this left Cheryl feeling down. She was the only one in the band without a man in her life and she wasn’t happy about it. ‘The others found Mr Right before Girls Aloud took off,’ she said in the
Sun.
‘It’s impossible for me to start a relationship. We are working so hard there’s no opportunity to meet someone.’

Even though the likes of Kieron Dyer and Duncan James had gushed about how gorgeous she was, Cheryl complained that no man approached her. ‘I never get chatted up. It’s really frustrating. I want a bloke with hidden charms but I only get approached by the cocky idiots who swagger around like God’s gift. My ideal man would be 50 Cent – I wouldn’t mind breeding a whole football team with him. But I’d just be happy with a builder or a postie – as long as he was a Geordie.’

However, it would be some time before Cheryl would meet the man who would change her life for ever. In the meantime, she had more pressing things on her mind. Like the prospect of going to prison …

As she strode into Kingston Crown Court on 9 October 2003 in a tailored white suit, Cheryl Tweedy was aware that the eyes of the country were on her. She also knew that she had a lot to lose if the case didn’t go her way.

Since January, practically every story written about her made some kind of reference to that dreadful night in Guildford, and it hurt her. She had been portrayed as a fist-happy bully, the kind of girl who preferred to deal with the situation physically rather than talking it through, which couldn’t be further from the truth. What had happened that night had been a one-off, and, more importantly, she had merely acted in self-defence.

But what bothered her more was the fear that people might believe that the attack was racially motivated: she could never live with that. Never in a million years would she have used racist slang, no matter how angry or drunk she was. It wasn’t in her make-up, and her parents hadn’t brought her up like that.

Luckily, Cheryl was able to find comfort in the fact that she had the backing of her thousands of fans. ‘The mail I got was amazing,’ she would reveal in the
Sun
after the trial. ‘I was inundated with letters from the fans telling me how much they supported me. I got poetry, too, the letters were really touching. I cried for about a week reading all that mail. I locked myself away in the flat and read them all. They really meant a lot to me.’

In spite of the support from fans, it was still imperative for her to prove her innocence once and for all. As she entered the court room she knew that the outcome of this week could affect her life for ever. This was scarier than any audition she’d ever been to. She glanced over at the jurors, trying to gauge what kind of people they were. Would they listen to both sides of the story fairly and base their judgement on the facts? Or would they look at Cheryl and see a popstar who thought she could get away with anything? She wasn’t sure, but she hoped that when she would eventually take the stand, they would listen to what she had to say without prejudice.

First to give evidence was Sophie Amogbokpa, who told the court her version of events. Cheryl kept her head bowed as she heard a different story to the one she herself remembered. Sophie claimed that Cheryl had charged at her, shouting and knocking her glasses off. ‘She was very aggressive and she acted violently towards me,’ she remembered. ‘She said “you f***ing b****” just over and over. The other girl Nicola was trying to restrain her. She was holding her and trying to calm her down.’

Under cross-examination Ms Amogbokpa was asked why she had not used the word ‘black’ in the original statement she
had made to police straight after the incident. She paused for a moment, and admitted that she couldn’t explain why reference to racial slurs was missing. Cheryl stared at Ms Amogbokpa’s face as her defence attorney, Richard Matthews, accused Sophie of being the first to use violence. ‘You went on the attack because you thought Cheryl Tweedy was taking too many lollies. You punched Cheryl Tweedy.’

However, far from caving in when what Cheryl believed was the truth was put to her, Ms Amogbokpa denied that she had thrown the first punch. Cheryl was crushed. Next to take the stand was Lauren Etheridge, a university student who had been in the ladies’ lavatory at the time of the alleged incident. She agreed that Cheryl was ‘completely paralytic’ as she argued with the toilet attendant and confirmed that although she had seen the popstar lash out at Sophie, she had not heard Cheryl use any racial abuse.

Although Cheryl didn’t like to hear about her drunken behaviour on the night, it was a relief to hear a witness to the event actually come out and say that she hadn’t heard her say anything racist. On the second day of the trial, Drink’s security manager Phillip White was called to give evidence. He told the court that when he reached the scene he saw Cheryl ‘right-hook the toilet attendant’. He also told the court that when he tried to bundle Cheryl out of the toilet, she was firing off all sorts of racist insults at the toilet attendant. ‘Miss Tweedy was trying to break free from me and said, “I’m going to do you. I’m going to finish the job.” She said, “You ****ing black b****. I’m going to do you.”’ He also alleged that when Cheryl had been taken to the VIP room to calm down she had screamed, ‘Get that jigaboo up here and I’ll sort her out.’

On day six of the trial, an emotional and considerably thinner-looking Cheryl Tweedy was asked to take the stand. She told the jurors that she had acted in self-defence and had actually tried to get away from the aggressive Ms Amogbokpa after she had lashed out at her. ‘I was thinking how in the hell do I get out of this one. She was a big woman and was scary-looking with quite broad shoulders. I felt scared of what she was going to do. I was in a strange area in a strange club. I wasn’t sure of the situation. I whacked her back. I don’t remember how hard. I was feeling scared, upset and angry.’

Cheryl also admitted that while she had sworn at the toilet attendant she had never uttered any kind of racial abuse and claimed that she had never used the word ‘jigaboo’ or indeed ever heard of it. A tear-soaked Cheryl also told the court how her life had been affected by having to live under the dark cloud of racism for the past nine months: ‘It’s been sickening. Embarrassing. There’s no way, no matter what state I’m in, would I refer to anybody by their colour. I did not use any racist words at any time in that club.’

When prosecutor Patricia Lees suggested she had let fame go to her head, Cheryl wasn’t having any of it. ‘I am extremely lucky but I have worked hard for what I have got. Things had changed for me in the last four weeks but it doesn’t mean that the way I was brought up and the person I am had changed. I did not use the word “black” at that woman.’ There was nothing more she could do now. Cheryl had said her piece, she had told the truth and now it was up to the twelve jurors to decide which side they would take.

When Nicola Roberts took the stand that week, Cheryl felt terrible. She felt that this was her problem and she felt bad that
her friend had been dragged into giving evidence. But Nicola had told her that she wanted the truth to be heard and so had no problems about having her say. During her evidence, Nicola said that it was Ms Amogbokpa who had lashed out first, while Cheryl was rummaging around in her handbag looking for change as a tip. ‘Cheryl just retaliated in self-defence, as anybody would if they had been punched in the face,’ she told the court.