Liam Payne's heartbreaking hope for son Bear and sad signs he was trying to sort his life out

had a heartbreaking hope for his son Bear, while the troubled singer repeatedly took measures to try to sort his life out.

The is made all the more devastating by the fact that the 31-year-old was desperately trying to find peace with himself in recent years. The singer had made multiple efforts to address his substance abuse issues by signing up for rehab, and was even making new music to try to harness the talent that catapulted him to fame as a teenager.

The star's life was cut short in a harrowing incident that saw him fall from a hotel room balcony in Argentina, with fans around the world left in shock over the news. Dad-of-one Liam shared a son with Girls Aloud's Cheryl Cole, who he successfully co-parented with.

Cheryl had the traumatic job of breaking the news to the former couple's seven-year-old son Bear, with both incredible parents having one hope for their son - that he could lead a normal a life as possible. Cheryl has kept her son's identity private - in the rare post she shares on social media, she makes sure his face is hidden.

Liam previously opened up about how they planned to bring him up, always praising Cheryl for being such a "natural" mother. Diary of a CEO podcast host Steven Bartlett asked Liam about how they protected Bear, with Liam admitting it's been "tricky".

He told Steven: "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."

"We'll have a good discussion about it, a long discussion because I know what effects that can have too. But I would never stop him from doing something he wanted to do. I'd let him know the risks and I'd tell him what was going to happen better than that," he added.

When discussing what he wants his son to go on to do for a living, the doting father concluded that he would want Bear to find "something that he enjoys doing every day. And I say that lightly because I think everything that you do - depending on what kind of person you are - becomes annoying at a point. I used to think my dad's job was the best job ever, building aeroplanes like adult Lego, but my dad's like, 'Do not end up in that bloody factory.'"

Cheryl echoed this sentiment in a 2023 interview with , expressing her desire for Bear to have a normal childhood and not be recognized on the street due to his parents' fame. She recalled a conversation with Bear, who had begun to realize his parents were famous, saying: "I don't want people recognizing him on the street.

"But he's twigged that I'm famous. 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'."

Both Liam and Cheryl opted not to reveal Bear's face, however, it's reported that he shares a striking resemblance to his father, as Liam mentioned in a 2020 interview with magazine: "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!'."

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