Cheryl Tweedy

Cheryl Ann Cole, neé Tweedy, (born 30 June 1983) is an English singer and member of the girl group Girls Aloud. She is married to the Chelsea and England footballer Ashley Cole[1] and in an interview with OK! Magazine published on 18 July 2006 she stated that she will be now be called Cheryl Cole.

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Early career
She was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. Throughout her childhood she performed in a large number of modelling and fashion shows. She entered ballroom competitions, sang, acted and won a ballet competition.

She won the following competitions as a child: Boots bonniest baby, Mothercare Happy Faces Portrait competition, Best Looking Girl of Newcastle, The Evening Chronicle 'Little Miss & Mister' and Most Attractive Girl at the MetroCentre.

She appeared in two British Gas adverts, an SCS advert, and an Eldon Square Christmas advert with younger brother Garry. In addition to Garry, Cheryl has another two brothers and a sister.


Girls Aloud

She was working as a waitress when she entered the UK talent-search show Popstars The Rivals. In the final show she received the most votes in the poll to choose the girls for the all-female group Girls Aloud, and was thus the first to be picked for the group.


Nightclub incident and conviction
On 11 January 2003 Miss Cole was involved in an altercation with a nightclub toilet attendant, Sophie Amogbokpa, in the Drink nightclub in Guildford. Cole was subsequently charged with racially aggravated assault (she had allegedly called Ms. Amogbokpa a "black bitch" among other racial slurs) and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. During her trial Cole claimed she acted in self defence (claiming she had been punched first) and denied using racially abusive language.

The jury found her guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, but cleared her of racially aggravated assault. The judge sentenced her to 120 hours of community service and ordered to pay her victim £500 in compensation, as well as £3000 prosecution costs.

Cole faced criticism not only for the initial incident, but also for showing no remorse whatsoever during the trial and for her subsequent public statements apologising to her fans, record company and bandmates but controversially refusing to apologise to Mrs Amogbokpa herself. Mrs Amogbokpa considered launching a civil court action, but decided not to proceed.

Miss Cole later claimed to regret the incident, saying she admitted she acted incorrectly under the influence of alcohol. She was angered by claims she was racist, citing her friendship with Javine Hylton on Popstars as apparent evidence she was not.


Media attention
Sometimes referred to in the press as "Chezza", she has gained celebrity status through her role in Girls Aloud and her good looks, coming second in the FHM 100 Sexiest Women poll in 2005, beating the likes of Britney Spears and her bandmates Sarah Harding and Nadine Coyle, only finishing behind Kelly Brook. In 2006, she finished sixth, while in January of the same year she topped a 'wish-list' poll run by Sun Online to identify the female celebrities that readers would most like to appear topless on the newspaper's Page 3. In July 2006 Cheryl signed a deal worth a reported £200,000 to become the face of Coca-Cola Zero for its UK launch. English singer Lily Allen has a song titled "Cheryl Tweedy", in which Allen states she wishes she looked like Cheryl Tweedy.

Consequently, her cache in the tabloids has been huge. For example, during a recording at Top of the Pops, Mike Skinner of The Streets dedicated his song "When You Wasn't Famous" to Cheryl, leading to much media speculation and many believing the song was about her. Skinner later correcting everyone by saying that he only dedicated the song to her because Girls Aloud were at the same taping of TOTP.

Cheryl co-presented the August 25, 2006 episode of The Friday Night Project along with Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding, where she did impressions of Sharon Osbourne and Big Brother 7 winner Pete Bennett.

During the Germany 2006 World Cup where Cheryl was supporting fiance Ashley Cole, Cheryl was continuously photographed with the wives and girlfriends of other England football stars, and they made media frenzy with their wild partying and shopping sprees. The British media deemed them the "WAGS" (wives and girlfriends), and highly criticized their wild antics. Cheryl later bashed the other WAGS, criticizing how they live off of their husband or boyfriend's money, and did no work themselves. She made it clear that she had a career with her band Girls Aloud before she ever met Ashley, and does not need to "borrow his plastic" when she goes shopping. However, she spared Victoria Beckham, stating that she's "witty" and "ambitious" and that they have a lot in common, particularly their careers in girl bands.

Cheryl is the face of Coke Zero, a new drink from Coca-Cola.


Ashley Cole
Even before marrying Ashley Cole, Cheryl won the title of "Sexiest Footballer's Wife" in FHM's 2006 Bloke Awards, and as Cole's fiancée she was a prominent "WAG" (acronym for "wives and girlfriends") during the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. She however railed against the term, emphasising that she had her own career.

She and Cole were married at Wrotham Park, just north of Barnet, Hertfordshire on 15 July 2006 - although they were to marry at Highclere Castle, Berkshire (according to a guard at the premises). When the two changed their plans, Tweedy and Cole had asked the staff there to lie to the press and not to disclose the fact they weren't actually getting married there.

Cheryl had a dress designed by Roberto Cavalli, reportedly worth £100,000 (€145,562), flown to England. The wedding was paid for by OK! Magazine, with whom the couple signed a £1,000,000 deal to publish pictures of the wedding.