SINGER Cheryl Cole has revealed how the pressures of celebrity life have left her feeling she can trust nobody but her mother and her pet dogs.
The Newcastle-born Girls Aloud singer and X Factor judge has chosen to bare her soul in a frank interview, as her rollercoaster career continues to sparkle.
She covers everything from Newcastle United to a friend she lost to a heroin overdose, and her strained relationship with her brother Andrew, who has appeared in court more than 50 times, to her two pet Chihuahuas.
Cheryl’s stellar career saw her leave Newcastle for a glamorous showbusiness life in London and the US, but the 26-year-old has revealed how she still desperately misses her North East roots.
She told how she doesn’t even trust her footballer husband Ashley Cole, who faced accusations of infidelity.
The singer, who grew up on a council estate in Heaton, Newcastle, said: “I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t trust anybody in life except my mother and my dogs.
“I’m scared to let people know how much they mean to me, and it’s scary that you can love a small hairy thing so much.”
The star has previously described allegations of infidelity on the part of Ashley as “horrendous“, and told how it has been hard work holding her marriage together.
In a national newspaper interview, Cheryl also reveals how she still gets homesick for Newcastle: “For me, there’s always that feeling, that smell in the air. I was so homesick. London was such a different mentality. People didn’t get my humour.”
Cheryl’s parents met when her father was 17 and her mother was a 21-year-old mother-of-three, she told the newspaper.
Growing up in Newcastle could be tough, she said, and her brother Andrew brought anguish on the family when he descended into a life of drugs and petty crime. Cheryl said: “I haven’t actually spoken to him for a while, but he’s got a baby and I’m hoping that will be his turning point.
“He is only three years older but he looks much older. It’s all the abuse he’s done to himself over the years.”
Of an early boyfriend, Jason Mack, she said: “He was constantly denying to me that he was using [drugs], even though I could see all the symptoms.
Of the on-going saga at Newcastle United, the singer told how she felt sorry for Alan Shearer as he battled to try to save the club from relegation.
She said: “When you watched him trying to manage their last few games, it was like his heart was breaking.”
Cheryl now lives in a mansion in Surrey, but she told how her mother, Joan, often stays, cooking and providing emotional support when needed.
“My mother is a really sensitive person and really caring and my dad has a lovely nature,” she said. “My dad is fascinated by the whole thing (Cheryl’s fame) and really proud. Sometimes he gets watery eyes just from talking about it and says ‘I could burst with pride’.”
In a separate interview to be published this week, she told how her marriage is now “happy“, describing Chelsea star Ashley as a “simple person“.
