Cheryl reveals she was ‘dying inside’ and ‘struggling in silence’ at height of fame

The singer finally decided to go to therapy after giving birth to son Bear
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Cheryl has revealed how she felt like she was “dying inside” while struggling with anxiety, prompting her to have therapy for a year after giving birth to son Bear.

The former Girls Aloud star told BBC Radio 1’s Life Hacks that she used to put on a “facade” at the height of her fame and “struggled in silence” rather than getting help.

“I would walk out to a wall of paparazzi and put on a smile but inside I was dying,” she told hosts Katie Thistleton and Cel Spellman.

“I think what happens then is everyone is looking around like, ‘Why does everyone seem so good and having a good time in a happy place and I feel rubbish?’ And that’s not helpful.

Facade: Cheryl revealed she would put on a smile to face the paparazzi
Sean Gallup/Getty Images

“So if people would just be a bit more open and honest with how they’re feeling, I think we could all help each other.”

The singer went on to explain that she decided to have “therapy for a year” after welcoming son Bear, who she shares with former One Direction star Liam Payne, because she had “struggled for so many years with anxiety and in my own head” and “didn’t want that to be happening when I was trying to focus on raising a child.”

“It felt like my responsibilities shifted and my priorities changed and I needed to be settled in my own head to be able to give him the best that I could possibly give him,” she said.

Cheryl also admitted that she struggled hardest with criticism and trolling in her teens and early 20s but has since come to believe that negative comments say more about the writer than about her.

“If someone has the time and the mental capacity to want to go on an article and write a sentence about somebody, you’ve got to be quite an angry sad person,” she said.

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