THE MEDIA LOVES women. Or at least, they love talking about them. Fair enough, given that they are people in the wider world who also love women, and are desperate to know what they’re up to.

Certain celebrity publications favour particular gals over others. For example, you may have noticed the Daily Mail are obsessed with Ariel Winter and Demi Rose. They’re particularly interested in the type of clothes they wear, and how they make their bodies look. They tend to cover the most minute of details when it comes to these gals with a tone that is undoubtedly misogynistic.

In the same, but on a larger scale, Cheryl (previously Tweedy) has been the darling of British media since venturing off on her own own post-Girls Aloud. 

This was undoubtedly buoyed by her appointment as X Factor judge in 2008.

Ken McKay Ken McKay

Now in the public eye more than ever, it made sense that she adopted this role as a media darling. She was a WAG! A TV personality! A singer! A style icon! And British! What’s not to love?

Here’s the thing though: the only thing the media loves more than a successful woman, is a woman who is seen to fail.

Cheryl announced her separation from first husband Ashley Cole in 2010. The following year, Cheryl left her role as judge on The X Factor US after three weeks without returning to her position on the UK series. She was regularly accused of miming during her performances.

Following a slew of media invasion, she took a year out from music, got married again and released another album. Once again, the media were waiting for what they perceived as a ‘slip-up’, which came in the form of none other than Liam Payne.

As Cheryl settled another divorce and began seeing Liam, the headlines which followed were predictable as ever, and typically involved the words ‘failed wife’ and ‘desperate’ among others.

Following a four year break, in which she became a mother, what’s changed?

Unfortunately, not much. She’s just released her new single, ‘Love Made Me Do It’, but has since taken down the video, citing a ‘technical error’. (It’s since back online.) It also comes after intense speculation surrounding her face, and whether the singer has had work done.

Not to get Chris Crocker on it, but can we leave her alone? Please? Is there a need to speculate on someone’s life so deeply that it prompts a rapid deletion such as this? (‘Technical issue’, my arse.)

Cheryl has lived a life not entirely dissimilar to a woman we all inevitably know, and has had to do so in the public eye. No one gets into a relationship with the end goal being for it to fail. It’s a manipulative move to pile on pressure like that, and jeer when someone eventually gives.

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