Cheryl Cole Biography / Pictures

Cheryl Cole (née Tweedy, born June 30, 1983) is a British singer and member of the band Girls Aloud. As part of Girls Aloud and as a featuring artist, Cheryl has had 21 UK Top Ten singles. In 2008, Cheryl became a judge on the British reality TV show The X Factor. She is married to the Chelsea and England football player Ashley Cole. Cheryl was voted "World's Sexiest Woman 2009" by the readers of men's magazine FHM .

Biography

Cheryl was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England and lived in an inner city district called Heaton. She is one of five children - one younger brother, Garry, and two half-brothers - Andrew and Joseph, and one half-sister Gillian.

In addition to dancing, Cheryl won many modelling competitions, including Boots Group's 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 also appeared in two British Gas adverts, an SCS advert, and an Eldon Square Christmas advert with younger brother Garry. Interested in dancing from an early age, Cheryl joined the Royal Ballet's,summer school at the age of nine. She sang, modelled and appeared in recitals on some television shows.

After reaching number 7 in FHM's 100 sexiest women 2008 poll,, Cheryl was voted "Sexiest Woman In the World" in the 2009 poll. In February 2009, Cheryl appeared on the cover of British Vogue.

Cheryl auditioned for Popstars The Rivals in 2002, singing S Club 7's "Have You Ever". She was the first person to be chosen for Girls Aloud which has gone on to be one of the most successful British pop groups of the decade.

After taking streetdancing classes during the filming of Passions of Girls Aloud series, Cheryl was picked to appear in the music video for will.i.am's single "Heartbreaker". She was later asked to sing additional vocals on the track. The song was released in the UK on 5 May 2008, but had already entered the top ten on download sales, peaking at number 4 in the UK Singles Chart.

On June 10, 2008, it was announced Cheryl would replace Sharon Osbourne as a judge for the fifth series of The X Factor.

A week before the 2008 series, in a 9 August 2008 interview with Cosmopolitan magazine, Cole's fellow judge Dannii Minogue said she believed Cheryl could bring a new side to the talent show: "One week Cheryl was talking about urban music and telling Simon Cowell 'This is what the show needs; this is where you've been going wrong'." Cheryl was given the Girls category, subsequently ending up as the winning judge, with Alexandra Burke winning the show on 13 December 2008.

Cheryl climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in an event arranaged by Gary Barlow. Also participating in the event were fellow Girls Aloud member Kimberley Walsh, Gary Barlow, Ben Shepard, Alesha Dixon, Denise Van Outen, Fearne Cotton, Chris Moyles and Ronan Keating.

On January 11, 2003, Cheryl was involved in an altercation with a nightclub toilet attendant, Sophie Amogbokpa, in "The Drink" nightclub in Guildford (now called "Harper's"). Cheryl was subsequently charged with racially aggravated assault (she had allegedly called Amogbokpa a "jigaboo") and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. During her trial Cheryl 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 her to pay her victim £500 in compensation, as well as £3,000 prosecution costs.

In July 2006, Tweedy married footballer Ashley Cheryl in Barnet, North West London. They had been together since September 2004. In January 2008, the couple almost separated after allegations were made that Cheryl had an affair with a waitress, however he denied the allegations, and has stayed with Cheryl. She now vows never to let the press get so invoved with her personal life as she feels if she had done this in the first place then none of the allegations would have happened.

In 2007, Lily Allen included a song entitled Cheryl Tweedy on her debut album Alright, Still. In 2009, Jack Lucien stated in a blog that he had written a song about Cheryl for his new album. X Factor judge Simon Cowell has said that he loves working with Cheryl. He is quoted as saying that she is 'the best X Factor judge ever.