The Girls Aloud singer has always insisted “family comes first”, but growing up in Heaton, Newcastle, with her four siblings wasn’t always easy
Cheryl is close to her mum Joan
Cheryl has faced her fair share of hardships over the years, but through it all, she’s credited her mum Joan Callaghan for standing by her through thick and thin.
The Girls Aloud singer has always insisted “family comes first”, and in 2017, she became a mum for the first time to son Bear, now nine, who she shares with late One Direction singer Liam Payne.
But her childhood wasn’t easy. She grew up with her brothers Andrew, Joe and Garry and sister Gillian in Heaton, Newcastle Upon Tyne. She said of her roots in Heaton: “When I was growing up, heroin was there for the taking.
“I could easily have taken that route if I’d wanted to. But I always maintained my ambition and I’m proud of myself. That nightmare (heroin) devastated family and friends. If I hadn’t been exposed to what it did to them at such a young age, who knows what might have happened?”
In her autobiography, the star revealed her brother Andrew – who was spotted living in a tent this week – received a six-year prison sentence for stabbing someone. Cheryl said she “felt like part of my childhood was taken away that day too.”
Here, we take a look inside Cheryl’s family – from her loyal mother, son Bear, homeless brother, other siblings and father Garry…
Bear Payne
Cheryl has gone to great lengths to protect the privacy of her nine-year-old son, who she shares with late One Direction singer Liam Payne. The former couple welcomed their child in 2017 and his face has never been made public.
While Cheryl previously described motherhood as “challenging”, she added, “but when you’re with him it makes none of that relevant.”
Following Liam’s tragic death in 2024, it was reported that Cheryl has made plans to stop Bear from receiving Liam’s inheritance “until he’s at least 25 years old, if not older.” A source told The Sun: “She feels she wants Bear to be of an age where he can make informed decisions about the money.”
Joan
Cheryl’s mum, Joan, is a mother-of-five from Byker, Newcastle. She grew up with an alcoholic father and fell pregnant aged 16 by her then-boyfriend Anthony Leighton.
Their first baby, Joseph, was born a few weeks before her 17th birthday and the couple married two years later. They went on to have two more children, Gillian and Andrew, but split soon after.
She met Garry Tweedy at 21 years old, before going on to have two children with him – Cheryl, in 1983, and Garry five years later. They never married but Cheryl and her four siblings all took Garry’s surname. They parted ways when Cheryl was 11.
After her split from footballer Ashley Cole, Cheryl declared: “I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t trust anybody in life except my mother and my dogs.” And in the wake of her break-up from Liam Payne, Cheryl described her mum as a “soft and kind woman” who should be left out of her relationship dramas.
Garry Tweedy
Care worker Garry Tweedy is thought to be in regular touch with Cheryl and was one of the few people to know about his daughter’s top secret wedding to Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini back in 2014. Garry is reportedly still living in Newcastle, but was forced to move out of his Tyneside home after it was demolished in 2014.
Years earlier, Cheryl’s dad supposedly had an emotional chat with her new husband, Ashley Cole, on their wedding day. A source said: “Gary got quite emotional and said that when Cheryl joined Girls Aloud it felt like he had lost his little girl. Gary then pleaded that if she and Ashley move abroad, it would be like losing her again.”
Andrew
This week, it was reported Cheryl’s estranged brother Andrew is ‘living in a tent outside a supermarket’ and ‘begging for a cup of coffee or a sandwich’.
While the Girls Aloud singer is thought to have made a number of attempts to help her older brother, Andrew Tweedy, get clean – including a reported £20,000 stint in rehab – he was reportedly in court last month for being drunk and disorderly outside Morrisons in Jarrow, South Tyneside.
Andrew has spent has struggled with addiction throughout his life and spent multiple stints behind bars. At the age of 15 he received a six-year prison sentence for stabbing someone – something Cheryl has said impacted her childhood as a young teenager.
“I’d be 18 by the time he was released, so I felt like part of my childhood was taken away that day too,” the singer wrote in her autobiography, Cheryl: My Story.
Before her 2006 wedding to footballer Ashley Cole, Cheryl visited her older brother in prison. “I left the prison in floods of tears,” the Call My Name singer wrote. “I had the means to really help Andrew now, if only he wanted to be helped, but he clearly didn’t.”
In a heartbreakingly honest 2008 interview Andrew admitted: “Cheryl wants to help me – but I’m too far gone. I know I’m breaking her heart but I’m not strong enough to sort myself out.”
Cheryl’s other siblings
Cheryl has two older brothers, Joseph and Andrew, one older sister, Gillian, and one younger brother, Garry. However, not all children share the same biological father.
In 2012, Cheryl revealed her brother Andrew was like a “crazy person” when he discovered their dad wasn’t his biological father, and the singer admits she wanted to “be sick” at the news. Cheryl’s mum Joan revealed Joe – who was not present – and Andrew and sister Gillian had a different dad from Cheryl, who was 11 at the time, and her younger brother Garry.
Writing in her autobiography, she said: “My brother Andrew had burst in the front door in a terrible rage. I’d never ever seen him in such a state and he started ranting and raving at my mum and dad.
“They looked really worried and my heart started beating super-fast. ‘I’ll explain it,’ mum said. Her eyes looked sad and she had deep frown lines in her forehead. “Dad had gone all quiet, which panicked me. The atmosphere felt chaotic. ‘Is dad my real dad?’ Andrew screamed in my mum’s face. I swear the clock stopped for a second. He said someone told him in the street that my dad wasn’t his real dad. Andrew was going so berserk that he looked like a crazy person. But however mad he looked, this was sounding horribly realistic.”
Cheryl and her younger brother Garry have remained close – in 2016, it was reported he moved into her home amid her marriage troubles with Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini. He also joined Cheryl in the US in 2011 when she relocated to the US for the X Factor.
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