Before Liam Payne and Cheryl were in an official relationship, the pair first crossed paths back in 2008 when he was 14.

When the late One Direction star, whose funeral is taking place today (November 20), first auditioned for X Factor, Cheryl was a judge on the show.

The Girls Aloud member was on the panel for the ITV show alongside Simon Cowell, Dannii Minogue and Louis Walsh when Liam performed Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon.

However, the singer didn’t make it through the first time and he returned to the show two years later where Cheryl remained a judge.

It was after his second X Factor audition when Liam became a member of One Direction alongside Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan.

The boyband went on to make history around the world from 2010 until announcing their split in 2016.

Is Liam Payne a father?

Despite knowing each other for almost a decade, it wasn’t until 2016 when Liam and Cheryl first connected romantically, following her relationship ending with ex-husband Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini.

They made their red carpet debut as an “item” at the Global Gift Gala in Paris in May of the same year.

It was a year later when the couple welcomed their first child together.

Bear was born in March 2017 when Liam was 23 years old.

Cheryl wrote on Instagram at the time: “On Wednesday 22nd March Liam and I became parents to an incredibly beautiful, healthy baby boy, weighing 7lb 9 and looking like a dream.

“Although he still doesn’t have a name he is already stealing hearts. We are all madly in love and overwhelmingly happy with our little arrival. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers around the world. A day that now has a different meaning to me forever.”

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But only a year later, Liam and Cheryl split up, with the pair co-parenting their son ever since.

Posting on X in 2018, Liam shared: “Cheryl and I are sad to announce that we are going our separate ways. It’s been a tough decision for us to make.

“We still have so much love for each other as a family. Bear is our world and we ask that you respect his privacy as we navigate our way through this together.”