The end of a major life chapter can make anyone feel nostalgic, and it’s been no different for Cheryl after the recent Girls Aloud reunion tour came to an end. According to insiders, the singer is now feeling a little lost, and has even been reminiscing about her marriage to Ashley Cole.
Cheryl, 41, and Ashley, 43, tied the knot in 2006, but the fairytale was rocked by cheating allegations and she filed for divorce in 2010.
Now, 14 years later, news that Ashley has a new role as a full-time coach for the England national team has left Cheryl nostalgic about the good times they had together. And, while she couldn’t be happier being a mum to seven-year-old son Bear, sources tell heat that the Parachute singer can’t help wondering about what could have been.
‘Cheryl is at a crossroads in her life – now the reunion tour’s over she’s really struggling over what to do next,’ an insider tells us. ‘Obviously Bear is her priority and she loves being a parent, but he’s back at school and all his extracurricular activities, so she does get lonely at times.’
The source continues, ‘She’s really had a lot of time to think about her old life with the girls, and seeing the news that Ashley has joined the FA as a coach with England just took her back to the days she was with him and he played for his country.’
When Cheryl and Ashley first began dating in 2004, they were two of the UK’s best known stars: her as one fifth of Girls Aloud, and Ashley as one of the nation’s top footballers.
But, less than two years later, her world came crashing down when hairdresser Aimee Walton alleged that she and Ashley had sex, with Cheryl writing in her 2012 memoir that she’d screamed at Ashley that it was ‘the end’ of the marriage. She took him back, but the couple eventually split for good in 2010 after it was claimed he’d cheated on her with four more women.
Cheryl went on to have a two-year marriage to French businessman Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini, and had Bear with 1D’s Liam Payne in 2017. Cheryl and Liam split in 2018 and she has been single ever since, while Ashley has been with his wife, Italian model Sharon Canu, for 10 years and they have two children.
The insider adds, ‘Cheryl got over her heartbreak a long time ago and is glad Ashley has found happiness, but in some ways she always felt her future was with him and for years she wondered what their life could’ve been like. She knows she wouldn’t have Bear if things with Ashley had turned out differently – but it just feels like she can’t seem to escape her past.’
