In her first televised interview since giving birth to her son Bear back in March, Cheryl has explained how she and Liam Payne came up with his unusual name.
Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine, Cheryl said: “I always loved the name. And the midwife always used to come in when he was little – he used to, like, grunt – and used to go, “There’s the little bear, there’s the little bear.”
“And it stuck,” she explained. “It’s just his name and I wanted a unique name.”
Cheryl admitted that it took “about seven weeks” to decide on Bear, and joked with Simon Cowell that she didn’t want to choose a ‘common’ name.
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She said: “Would you want to be called Arthur or Simon or one of those common names? We wouldn’t do that to the child.”
Cheryl also admitted that she had the deciding vote when it came to choosing a name, and thinks that mums should always get the final say.
She said: “We carry them for nine months, we give birth to them and I think it’s only fair.”
It seems that Liam didn’t agree with Cheryl’s choice at first. He told KISS FM, “I actually wanted Arthur”- but he did come around eventually. He told the hosts of a US radio interview: “To be honest at first I wasn’t having it, I didn’t understand it and I wasn’t sure. Now I look at him and he is Bear. It’s mad.”
While Cheryl is all set for her return to X Factor, she admitted that she’s in no rush to get back to work. She said: “I’ve got the luxury of being able to spend time with my newborn child and I think I’m going to take that for what it is.
“A lot of mothers have to rush back to work and I don’t think that’s really fair. So I’m going to take time, a few more months, until he’s a bit more grown.”
When asked how she’d managed to get back into shape so quickly she said: “It didn’t feel like that for me. My whole body changed.”
She explained that her mum was back in her jeans within a week of giving birth, and said “all the females in my family are like that.”
But that doesn’t mean she’s been taking it easy – she’s been working out for an hour a day since Bear was three months old.
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Despite admitting that she “hated being pregnant”, Cheryl, who looked happier than ever, said: “I’ve had the best six months of my life.”
She said that being a mum had changed her life completely “in the most amazing way,” and hasn’t ruled out having more children.
“I have no plans to at the moment,” she said. “But maybe one day.”