Cheryl Cole: Her Story - the Unauthorized Biography (26 page)

As always, though, there was a spoke in the wheel that managed momentarily to knock Cheryl off course.

At the end of 2008, Cheryl had taken part in a
Vogue
fashion spread, resulting in her gracing the cover of the style bible’s February 2009 issue – a real honour, bearing in mind that she was the product of a reality show. Now, her profile, talent and stunning looks transcended those beginnings. When the magazine hit the shelves in the new year, the press had kittens about certain aspects of the interview that accompanied the gorgeous shots. For in it, she not only admitted that she used to cry about her weight in the early days of Girls Aloud – when she’d topped the scales at nine-and-a-half stone and therefore turned to the Atkins diet – but she also confessed that, when she was young, she was called ‘P*ki’ because she was small and dark and hairy.

What had the tabloid hacks and weekly mags really giddy, though, were the things she said about Victoria Beckham. In the world-exclusive interview, Cheryl hinted that she had been left deeply upset when her supposed best pal from the 2006 World Cup hadn’t been in touch to lend a friendly shoulder to cry on during her bad time with Ashley – when even Coleen Rooney had offered support.

‘I mean, David’s mum is friends with Ashley’s mum,’ she told the esteemed magazine. ‘Victoria was in my hotel room the whole time during the World Cup – we’ve had barbecues together – so I was quite shocked by that.’

Cheryl was misquoted by the press when she apparently told the
Guardian
that she would never wear any of Victoria’s dress designs because they were for old people. It was left up to Kimberley Walsh to calm the waters. She explained that Cheryl had meant that the Beckham designs were more likely to be worn by sophisticated women, not necessarily young twenty-somethings.

Naturally, that didn’t stop the press from whipping up an exaggerated story about how the WAG superstars were at loggerheads. But was there any truth in the rumours that the two A-listers were fighting like cat and dog?

Well, no – not according to an unnamed footballer’s wife, and friend to both women, who told
OK!
magazine that there was no hint of a feud. In fact, both girls were apparently just as friendly as ever. The knowledgeable source also revealed how Victoria used to text Cheryl throughout
The X Factor
to say how well she was doing on the panel and how great she looked in her designer dresses. Fans were pleased to hear that the two most famous and successful WAGs were not warring after all.

January also saw the release of Girls Aloud’s twentieth single, ‘The Loving Kind’, which disappointingly proved to be the band’s lowest-charting single to date – although it was still a top-ten hit, at number ten. But just around the corner was a long-overdue achievement that would overshadow that. For although the girls lost out to Elbow in the category of Best British Group at the BRIT Awards ceremony on 18 February
2009, they were triumphant as artists of the Best British Single, ‘The Promise’.

At last, they were content that they were established and totally accepted on the music scene (well, the voting public at least thought they deserved such a prestigious accolade). The girls were definitely here to stay. While rumours abounded that their
Out of Control
tour in the summer of 2009 would be their last, the band were adamant that they had no plans yet to split – and signed a three-album deal to prove it.

However, despite the news that they were planning on sticking around for some time to come, there were suggestions that future albums might include material produced by musicians
other
than Xenomania. For example, Coldplay had told the girls that they were trying to come up with the perfect song for them; and the band themselves spoke of collaborating with R&B stars like Ne-Yo.

The mooted plans had fans up in arms. They fretted that moving away from the producers who had given the girls so many hits, and who seemed to know exactly how they worked as a band, would harm the group in some way. After all, how many pop artists had actually survived once they felt they had matured enough to branch out with a new sound? The bargain bins are littered with the efforts of popstars who tried something new … and ended up regretting their decision, big time. But with their record company keen to keep the hits coming, fans were assured that whatever the girls’ new sound might be, it would be guaranteed to be a smash success.

Before the tour, and work on a sixth album, Cheryl embarked on her most physically arduous – and potentially dangerous – adventure to date.

In March 2009, Cheryl decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Not for fun, mind. She was doing it for a good cause. She and a bunch of kind-hearted celebs, including Gary Barlow, Kimberley Walsh, Alesha Dixon and Denise Van Outen, plotted to ascend the impressive mountain in Tanzania in aid of Comic Relief. She and the other celebrities took six months to prepare for the exhausting trek – but nonetheless, when they tackled it, the climb was harder than any of them thought it would be. Like so many challenges she had faced in the past, Cheryl approached it head-on, and raised more than a million pounds along the way.

That climb symbolizes her struggle to become successful. Cheryl Cole really has reached a peak in her career – and what a peak. She is on top of the world. Like a real-life Cinderella, all her dreams have miraculously come true.

Once upon a time, she was just a young girl who didn’t know where the next meal was coming from and who had to wear her family’s hand-me-downs. But she worked herself hard to make sure life had more to offer, and eventually she began to find success in a pop band, met and married her ideal man and, gradually, became the UK’s princess of hearts. The journey wasn’t always smooth, and she stumbled along the way, but she dealt with every hurdle with grace and dignity.

Cheryl no doubt still has lots more that she’d like to achieve. Although there are rumours that she wants to break America, either as a TV star or a solo artist, she’s maintained throughout her marriage that all she really wants to do is start a family. So will Cheryl fulfil her dreams any time soon, once the summer tours are out of the way?

If she does, there’s little doubt that she will embrace motherhood
as successfully and as passionately as she has the rest of her life. The future seems to hold nothing but hope for the talented Cheryl Cole.

Aerosmith
(i)

Air, Donna
(i)

Aitken, Matt
(i)

Aladdin
(i)

Alien Autopsy
(i)

Allan, Clare
(i)

Allen, Lily
(i)

‘Cheryl Tweedy’ song and
(i)

Amogbokpa, Sophie
(i)
,
(ii)

Andre, Peter
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)

Another Level
(i)

Ant & Dec
(i)
,
(ii)

Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night
Takeaway
(i)

Ant and Seb
(i)

Arctic Monkeys
(i)
,
(ii)

Ardoff, Christopher
(i)

‘Ashley-gate’
(i)

Astley, Rick
(i)

Astoria (club)
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)

Atkins diet
(i)

Attitude
(i)

AXM
(i)

B, Mel
(i)

Baja Beach (club)
(i)

Baker, Annastasia
(i)
,
(ii)

Banana Split
(i)
,
(ii)

Bantam Press
(i)

Bar Zuca
(i)

Barbie
(i)

Barlow, Gary
(i)

Barratt, Emma
(i)

Barrymore, Michael
(i)

Bass, Michelle
(i)

BBC
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)
,
(v)

Beard, Emma
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)

Beckham, David
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)
;
see also
Posh and Becks

Beckham, Victoria
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)
,
(v)
,
(vi)
,
(vii)
,
(viii)
;
see also
Posh and Becks; Posh Spice

Bedi, Anoop
(i)

Bee Gees
(i)

Bellefire
(i)

Bensley, Alexander
(i)

Bergkamp, Dennis
(i)

Berrabah, Amelle
(i)

Berry, Dave
(i)

Best Looking Girl in Newcastle (contest)
(i)

Betty Boo
(i)

B*witched
(i)

Beyoncé
(i)
,
(ii)

Bible
(i)

Bicker, Eve
(i)

Big Breakfast, The
(i)

Big Brother
(i)

Black, Cilla
(i)

Blondie
(i)
,
(ii)

Blue
(i)

Blue Star (football ground)
(i)

Blunt, James
(i)

Boots The Chemist’s Bonniest Baby (contest)
(i)

Bowers, Dane
(i)

Boy George
(i)

Boyz II Men
(i)

Boyzone
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)

Bradbeer, Hannah
(i)

Brady, Karren
(i)

Brand, Jo
(i)

Brand, Russell
(i)

Brenner’s Park Hotel
(i)

Brilliant (management company)
(i)

BRIT Awards
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)
,
(v)
,
(vi)
,
(vii)

Britain’s Got Talent
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)

Britain’s Top Style Icon
(i)

British Dance Championships
(i)

British Gas
(i)

Brown, Lynsey
(i)
,
(ii)

Bublé, Michael
(i)

Buchanan, Keisha
(i)

Buckley, Jeff
(i)

Burke, Alexandra (Alex)
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)

Busted
(i)

C, Mel
(i)

Callan, Jessica
(i)

Cameron, David
(i)

Capital Radio
(i)

Carey, Mariah
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)

Carlisle, Belinda
(i)

Carr, Alan
(i)

Cavalli, Roberto
(i)
,
(ii)

CC Club
(i)

CD:UK
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)
,
(v)

Celeb Diaries, The
(i)

Celebrity Apprentice
(i)
,
(ii)

Channel 4 (TV channel)
(i)

Channel 5 (TV channel)
see
Five

Chapman, Nicki
(i)

charity singles
(i)
,
(ii)

Chemistry
(i)
,
(ii)

Cher
(i)

Cheryl Cole Factor
,
The
(i)

‘Cheryl Tweedy’ (song)
(i)

Childline
(i)

Children In Need
(i)

Children’s World
(i)
,
(ii)

Choice FM
(i)

Chukukere, Joseph
(i)

Church, Charlotte
(i)
,
(ii)

CJ (Ashley’s friend)
(i)

Clapton, Eric
(i)

Clarkson, Alison
see
Betty Boo

Clarkson, Kelly
(i)

Cohen, Leonard
(i)

Coke Zero
(i)

Coldplay
(i)
,
(ii)

Cole, Ashley (husband)
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)
,
(v)
,
(vi)
,
(vii)
,
(viii)

Aimee Walton and of
(i)
,
(ii)

autobiography of
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)
,
(v)
,
(vi)

‘Cheryl and Ashley’ fame of
(i)

Cheryl’s engagement to
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)

Cheryl marries
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)
,
(v)
,
(vi)

domestic skills of
(i)

‘gay premiership football story’ and
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)

Emma Barratt and
(i)

National Lottery Dream Number promoted by
(i)

‘new Beckhams’ tag received by
(i)

Cole, Cheryl (née Tweedy):

Ashley marries
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)
,
(v)
,
(vi)

Ashley’s engagement to
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)

bad press of
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)

ballet lessons attended by
(i)
,
(ii)

Blue met by
(i)

boyfriends of
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)

care-home work of
(i)

CD:UK
presented by
(i)

‘Cheryl and Ashley’ fame of
(i)

‘Cheryl Tweedy’ song about
(i)

Christmas Box appeal speech by
(i)

Comic Relief and
(i)
,
(ii)

community-service order given to
(i)
,
(ii)
,
(iii)
,
(iv)