OUR LATEST ISSUE
X Factor's Cheryl Cole
Cheryl Cole
Girl Aloud, celebrity darling, and X Factor favourite talks to PrideLife
"I'm just going to live my life and if I'm in the paper, big deal"
She’s part of one of the world’s most successful girl groups, she’s the darling of the tabloids, she’s poised to take America by storm, and she’s soon to be back on our screens as the X Factor judge we all love – we give you Cheryl Cole…!
You are looking pretty foxy. Is that ‘cause you’ve been dancing like a crazy monkey on tour?
I think it’s the make-up artist needs the credit. You don’t realise how much it does take out of you, touring and doing X Factor: it’s not just physically demanding, it’s emotionally demanding. Sometimes I’d be going to say thank you to the fans and I’m just choked. But one of the bad things about being a pop star, you can’t have a bad day, because then you’re a diva, or you’re Miss Madam. But we’re just human.
Would you like to do the whole America thing?
I think any artist would like to break in America. If you break there, you can break anywhere. It’s a big, big deal and a lot different to us. I’d like the success of breaking it in America. But we are not the Spice Girls. We’re not musically like them. We don’t look like them.
Are you on strict diets or something?
No! It annoys me when people say “Eat this and eat that”. Just get off your arse and exercise. You don’t have to deprive yourself of anything. If you want it, eat it. Exercise is the key. Not starving yourself and eating mouthfuls of this and mouthfuls of that. That makes me angry. It’s shite half the things they print.
Do you worry about what you look like as a group though?
We are what we are, normal girls. We’re all completely different shapes and sizes, we are all completely different in every kind of way, so hopefully girls can relate to us.
How do you feel about all the tabloid attention?
As much as sometimes you hate them, you need them, don’t you? They have been really supportive of us. If there’s a bad story, someone’s eating their chips off it the next day so we don’t give a shit. It’s hurtful to read lies about yourself when people can actually believe those things.
People like a bit of scandal.
Yeah, but when it’s happening to you personally, it doesn’t feel like that, you know.
Is it hard that all your relationship stuff is always going to be delved into?
It means you’d have to stay in the house which I’m not prepared to do. I’m just going to live my life and if I’m in the paper, big deal. In the past when we were still learning about stuff, the first bad story that is hurtful and untrue and your family is upset but we’re still around after all them bad stories and we’re still successful.
Do you ever see yourself on the front of the papers and think, “Is this all worth it?”?
I would never ever let a journalist make me feel like that. I would be upset at the fact that the people who buy the papers might believe it, and then I would be hurt for personal reasons, but I would never let anybody make me feel like this is not worth doing, because this is all I’ve ever wanted to do. To be honest with you, in the past I didn’t eat, sleep, I barely breathed through worry of what people were thinking of me, but never once did I think “None of this is worth it”. It’s one of the bad perks of the job.
Does the stigma of once being reality show stars still affect you?
No. We’re not ashamed of where we came from. But you need to… not get rid of it, just get past it so you can stand on your own as a band.
How did you meet Ashley then, Cheryl?
Well, I would go as far as to say I chatted him up. We lived in the same complex and it had a communal tennis court thing… His car broke down and I stopped and I asked him did he need a hand and he asked me, Did I need a number? I said no and then I kind of…liked him after that. Then I saw him one day in a magazine and he looked absolutely gorgeous. I was kicking myself, thinking, ‘Why didn’t I just give him the number for God’s sakes?’ Then when I saw him - I don’t know what came over me - but I went: ‘Ashley, I’ve seen you in the magazine… looking good!’ Like a ****ing twat, I swear.
Do you still hear the rumours that Girls Aloud are going to split? Even more now…
Do you know what always amazes me? We get asked this all the time, you know when we’re sitting around together; and we know it’s a question people have to ask but do people really think we’re going to go, “Well actually, yeah, we’re splitting up next week.”
