Cheryl Attends Ex Liam Payne’s Funeral After Sharing Heartbreaking Plea for Their 7-Year-Old Son

Cheryl paid her respects to ex-boyfriend Liam Payne at his funeral on Wednesday, Nov. 20, attending the service alongside her Girls Aloud bandmates.

The singer, who welcomed son Bear with Payne in 2017, was seen exiting the One Direction star’s funeral in England behind his parents, Karen and Geoff Payne.

Her Girls Aloud bandmates Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts were also in attendance as the singer was laid to rest, and both were seen hugging Payne’s ex-bandmate Harry Styles. Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson were also on hand, as were friends like James Corden and Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy.

Payne, 31, died on Oct. 16 after falling from the balcony of his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Two days later, Cheryl shared a photo of him and their 7-year-old son to Instagram, asking fans to please respect their family’s privacy.

“As I try to navigate this earth shattering event, and work through my own grief at this indescribably painful time, I’d like to kindly remind everyone that we have lost a human being,” she wrote. “Liam was not only a pop star and celebrity, he was a son, a brother, an uncle, a dear friend and a father to our 7 year old son. A son that now has to face the reality of never seeing his father again.”

She continued, “What is troubling my spirit the most is that one day Bear will have access to the abhorrent reports and media exploitation we have seen in the past two days. It is breaking my heart further that I cannot protect him from that in his future.”

“I am begging you to consider what use some of these reports are serving, other than to cause further harm to everyone left behind picking up the pieces,” Cheryl concluded. “Before you leave comments or make videos, ask yourself if you would like your own child or family to read them. Please give Liam the little dignity he has left in the wake of his death to rest in some peace at least.”

Cheryl and Payne first met in 2008 on the set of The X Factor, where Payne was a contestant and Cheryl was a judge. They started dating in 2016, and welcomed their son a year later. They broke up in 2018, but remained close co-parents.

“I couldn’t ask [for] someone better. The relationship we have with each other now as friends has only grown more,” Payne said about Cheryl on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast in 2022. “We broke up for a reason and now, she gives me full autonomy of my own life to be able to go and do what I do and at the same time I know he’s been taken care of because he’s all she cares about. You couldn’t ask for more.”

A preliminary autopsy report found that Payne sustained multiple “internal and external” injuries in the fall from his balcony, and the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office later said that he was “not fully conscious or was experiencing a state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness at the time of the fall.”