Look how fast the night changes! Liam Payne has shared a very rare picture of his six-year-old son Bear, and the young boy is all grown up. The snap showed Bear from the back, holding hands with an unknown person.
Rocking a mustard yellow puffer jacket, the young boy was wrapped up warm as he wandered around London with his dad. "I want to be on a billboard one day daddy," Liam captioned the snap, which was posted on X and included the bear emoji and a red heart emoji.
Fans loved the ultra-rare look at Bear, whose mom is British pop star Cheryl; Liam and Cheryl dated in 2016 and welcomed Bear in March 2017. However, just one year after welcoming their first child together, the pair announced their separation.
At the time, they released a statement which read: "We are sad to announce that we are going our separate ways. 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."
In 2023 Liam thanked Cheryl after he admitted himself to a detox center following controversial comments he made on a podcast, including sharing that the the birth of his son "ruined his relationship".
Speaking in the YouTube clip, he said: "Time with Bear’s been really, really great. More than anything, I want to say thank you to him and his mum [Cheryl] for giving me a little bit of freedom to go and get well at that moment because I had to."
"There’s no point trying to be a dad when you’ve got nothing to teach and I don’t think up until this point I really had much to say to him other than just caring for him very deeply and loving him deeply, which is obviously the most important thing," he added.
Cheryl, who was a mentor on The X Factor when Liam appeared as a hopeful before joining One Direction, was also a member of the girl group Girls Aloud, who confirmed that they would be reuniting for a 2024 tour in memory of late bandmate Sarah Harding.
The foursome – Cheryl, Kimberley Walsh, Nadine Coyle, and Nicola Roberts – made their first public appearance since the news broke by talking to Zoe Ball on BBC Radio 2 and she joked that she hadn't yet tolf Bear "because the whole school would know within half an hour.".
"He'll come to the show," she confirmed. "I don't think I'll get away with [him not coming]." She also spoke of how the time has passed, adding: "Bear is delicious and not a baby anymore. We blinked and we're here - almost seven!"
Bear will turn seven on March 22, 2024.