Liam Payne never stopped loving Cheryl Cole, according to Simon Cowell’s brother.
Tony Cowell said the One Direction star’s tragic death at the age of 31 will be ‘so difficult’ for the Girls Aloud band member, 41, and he ‘can’t imagine her pain’.
Payne and Cole’s two year relationship came to an end in 2018 a year after their son Bear was born.
The pop star previously told a podcast in 2022 that she was an ‘amazing mum’with Cherly also saying when announcing their split that they ‘still have so much for each other as a family’.
Payne died last Wednesday after falling 45ft from a third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, in Argentina.
Tony first met Payne backstage at The X Factor in 2010 when he was 16-years-old.
He recounted how he was always ‘open and honest’ and always had a ‘huge smile’ on his face.
Tony also revealed how Payne had gone to the Cotswolds a few months before his death to see his brother Simon where their sons, Eric and Bear, played together.
He told Closer magazine: ‘Liam was determined to gain Simon’s approval [on The X Factor]. He desperately wanted to please him.
‘We are devastated. I feel for Simon, too. He met with Liam a few months ago, when Liam took Bear to see him at his house in the Cotswolds, and Bear played with his son, Eric.
‘I also feel for Cheryl, as I know Liam never stopped loving her and Bear. It’s going to be so difficult for her. I can’t imagine her pain. Louis Walsh is devastated too. He told me, ‘Liam had this star quality about him. I will miss him.’
Tony added: ‘Our family has known Liam for so many years. I will always remember how he always made the effort to speak to our late mum, Julie, when she was in Simon’s dressing room.
‘Yes, the fame took its toll on his mental health, but he remained kind and considerate and an incredible friend to so many, and a wonderful father to [his son] Bear; so generous and private.’
In a frank interview published in The Sunday Times Style magazine in 2018, shortly after their split, mother-of-one Cheryl was quoted as telling journalist Decca Aitkenhead how Payne ‘is the only man who has ever been faithful to her’.
The pop star said she had been disappointed by every important man in her life, including her father, brother and ex-husbands, leaving her with ‘zero’ interest in a new relationship.
Calling her son ‘the man of her dreams’, she said she would happily be single for ever. ‘I do seriously think I might be, I do,’ she told the publication.