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She was born in Newcastle upon Tyne,
England. Throughout her childhood she performed in a large number of
modelling and fashion shows. She entered ballroom competitions, sang,
acted and won a ballet competition.
She won the following competitions as a child: Boots 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 appeared in two British Gas adverts, an SCS advert, with help from
good friends Jon Horton and Joe Chare, and an Eldon Square Christmas
advert with younger brother Garry. In addition to Garry, Cheryl has
another two brothers and a sister.
She was working as a waitress when she entered the UK talent-search show
Popstars The Rivals. In the final show she received the most votes in the
poll to choose the girls for the all-female group Girls Aloud, and was
thus the first to be picked for the group.
On 11 January 2003 Tweedy was involved in an altercation with a nightclub
toilet attendant, Sophie Amogbokpa, in the Drink nightclub in Guildford.
Tweedy was subsequently charged with racially aggravated assault (she had
allegedly called Amogbokpa a "Jigaboo" among other racial slurs) and
assault occasioning actual bodily harm. During her trial Tweedy 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 to pay her victim £500 in
compensation, as well as £3000 prosecution costs.
Sometimes referred to in the press as "Chezza", she has gained celebrity
status through her role in Girls Aloud and her good looks, coming second
in the FHM 100 Sexiest Women poll in 2005, beating Britney Spears and her
bandmates Sarah Harding and Nadine Coyle, and finishing behind Kelly
Brook. In 2006, she finished sixth, while in January of the same year she
topped a 'wish-list' poll run by Sun Online to identify the female
celebrities that readers would most like to appear topless on the
newspaper's Page 3. In July 2006 Cheryl signed a deal worth a reported
£200,000 to become the face of Coca-Cola Zero for its UK launch. English
singer Lily Allen has a song titled "Cheryl Tweedy", in which Allen states
she wishes she looked like Cheryl Tweedy, which Allen has later claimed to
be ironic and should be seen as more of an insult as opposed to a
compliment.
Consequently, her cachet in the tabloids has been huge. For example,
during a recording at Top of the Pops, Mike Skinner of The Streets
dedicated his song "When You Wasn't Famous" to Cheryl, leading to much
media speculation and many believing the song was about her. Skinner later
corrected everyone by saying that he only dedicated the song to her
because Girls Aloud were at the same taping of TOTP.
Cheryl co-presented the August 25, 2006 episode of The Friday Night
Project along with Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding, where she did
impressions of Sharon Osbourne and Big Brother 7 winner Pete Bennett.
During the Germany 2006 World Cup where Cheryl was supporting fiancé
Ashley Cole, she was continuously photographed with the wives and
girlfriends of other England football stars, and a media frenzy occurred
over their partying and shopping sprees. The British media deemed them the
"WAGS" (wives and girlfriends), and criticized their antics. Cheryl later
said the other "WAGS" lived off their partners' money, and did no work
themselves, whereas she had had a career with Girls Aloud before meeting
Ashley, and did not "borrow his plastic" when she went shopping. She
spared Victoria Beckham, stating that she's "witty" and "ambitious" and
that they have a lot in common, particularly their careers in girl bands.
Cheryl appeared on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice in 2007 to raise money
for Comic Relief.
According to press reports, in March 2007 Cole turned down a six figure
sum offer to join the fourth series of The X Factor as a judge |
