Everything we know about Liam Payne and Cheryl's son Bear

Liam and Cheryl had been in a relationship for a year when they welcomed their son Bear on 22 March 2017. They shared their first photo of the newborn just days later, with doting dad Liam cradling his son and explaining he was "speechless."

He wrote in the emotional caption: "I'm incredibly happy to welcome our new baby boy into the world, it's a moment that I will never forget for the rest of my life and my favourite memory I have so far.

"I'm completely in awe of his incredible mother and how she has been the whole way through this, she's really made my dreams come true.

"We haven't named him yet but he's already capturing hearts including mine. I feel very blessed."

Bear's unusual name was inspired by his birth, which saw the midwife call him the affectionate nickname "little bear" in the delivery room.

During an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden six months after Bear was born, the 'Strip That Down' singer explained: "He had this thing where if they don't have a good cry, they get fluid in their lungs, which is quite serious, so he was like going 'grrrr.'

"I had like 10 doctors come in the room, and in the end, the guy was just like, 'Dude, I'm not being funny. There's nothing wrong with him. He just likes to make a lot of noise.' And that's carried on ever since, so he just became Bear."

However, Liam admitted he had hoped to choose a more "traditional" name before settling on Bear.  "I wanted a more traditional name and she wanted a name that was more unusual. And the reason she chose Bear in the end was because Bear is a name that when you leave a room, you won't forget. And I like that," he told Total Access in May 2017. 

"When I look at him, he's just Bear. At first, I wasn't really having it. I was like, 'I'm not really sure. I don't really understand.' Now I look at him and he's Bear. You become your name as you get older anyway."

While Liam had dreams of being "a young dad", he candidly admitted it took time to adjust to his new responsibilities.

"I had my son at a young age, and you think it will be a magical thing, that you're going to grow up one day into the person you're supposed to be," he said in an interview with People. 

"But it took a lot to find my footing. I figured, dad takes care of everyone, that's what he does, so my thing was to cook."

During a radio interview in 2017 shortly after Bear's birth, Liam said: "The best part about being a dad is when [your children] look at you. They don't just look at you, they look into your soul, they look right through you." 

"He's like mini me and he has [Cheryl's] eyes. He's smashed it on the eye front, I look at him and think ah, I love him." 

In a chilling remark, when the singer was asked what the scariest part about being a dad was, Liam said: "That he might grow up to be like me. You don't understand, that's a pretty scary thought."

While he didn't get to spend as much time with him as he'd hoped, Liam said that he saw him as a "superhero."

"I see him two times a week, three times a week sometimes. And I make sure when I see him, he has 100 per cent of my time," he told People in 2022.

"I like to give him those moments and it's important, he needs that in his life. He needs his dad in his life, and I'm happy he looks at me like a superhero, and I'm hoping to keep it that way."

Liam also revealed on Instagra, his son had said "I want to be on a billboard one day daddy," after seeing the singer's face on an advertisement.

After One Direction announced their indefinite hiatus in 2016, Liam launched his solo career, releasing his first single in 2017 and his album LP1 two years later. 

While he said he was "excited" to be on tour, he also was conscious that it was eating into his quality father-son time with Bear.  

"It has been hard to get home and see him. Loads of random things happen with kids all the time. Like if he's not very well, sometimes you miss dates and things. Then a couple of weeks go by, and I haven't seen him in ages," he said on The One Show.

"It hurts. I'm just going to have to figure out the schedule properly."

Shortly after spending time in rehab, Liam told fans via his YouTube channel that his son is "awesome" and even praised his former girlfriend Cheryl for "coming to his rescue" when he needed it, as well as former bandmates Harry, Louis, Niall and Zayn.

"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.

As Bear grew up, he became more aware of his parents' careers and thought it was "cool" that they were famous.

During an interview with British Vogue in November 2023, Cheryl revealed: "The other day he said, ‘How lucky am I to have famous parents?’ I said, ‘It doesn’t matter.' He goes: 'Yeah. But it’s pretty cool.'

"The problem is that I want Bear to have a normal childhood. I don’t want people recognising him on the street. But he’s twigged that I’m famous."

Both Liam and Cheryl are notoriously private about their son, but the 'Familiar' hitmaker admitted that there was a strong resemblance between himself and his son.

Back in 2020, when Bear was just three, Liam told People: "He looks exactly like me, which is very strange. When family members see baby pictures of me now, they say, 'Oh wow, Bear looks really great there!'"

On the Diary of a CEO podcast, Liam opened up about having "fallouts" with his son over protecting him from social media. "It's up to you how you use your platform in the end and what you let it do to you. I enjoy TikTok, I watch videos people send me but I don't really have a 'for you' page, I don't really go through it constantly. It's difficult with kids and screens, I have one and I watch him... and I make him go out and do stuff. 

"Sometimes we fall out big. We have a row. Sometimes it's not good. He's learning with it. We are the guinea pig generation. We are the first generation to be affected by an algorithm... It's weeding out the bad sides of it," he said.

Liam and Cheryl decided to call time on their romantic relationship one year after Bear was born.

At the time, the couple 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."

Speaking with fans in a YouTube clip, Liam revealed: "[Bear] actually texted me the other day from his iPad saying, 'Hello, Dad.'"

The 'What Makes you Beautiful' singer responded with "'ello," to which his son replied: "'No, no, it's not ello it's hello with an H'. So, he’s learning really quickly."

The star added: "He's far smarter than I think I’ll ever be. He’s a wonder, but he’s definitely learning to talk at this moment in time and it’s a lot of fun to be around to watch him grow."  

Earlier this year as the star marked his 31st birthday in August, the father-of-one made rare comments about his 'mini me' son while celebrating his 31st birthday. 

In an Instagram video uploaded at the time, the late star told his followers: "I didn't get any dad socks yet though. I'm going to speak to my son in a little bit which I'm really excited about.

"Bless him. He's getting so big now. He's a big boy and he looks like a mini me. As if we needed any more me in the world."

Liam previously opened up about how he would feel if Bear followed in his footsteps and auctioned for The X Factor.

Speaking on the Diary of a CEO podcast, he told host Steven Bartlett the idea of Bear becoming famous was "tricky" because he wanted to both protect him and support his dreams.

"This is a tricky one! I think his mum's hoping he's going to become some sort of yoga person. His mum's very chill these days. He's got the best advice from the parents around him in the long run, I guess.

"I dunno… obviously we've protected his identity to start off with. That's not being pretentious or anything other than the fact I want to give him a chance to be Bear first before he has to be your mum and dad are so-and-so. I made my choice to be where I was at 14/15 so I figure he can make his own choice then too."