Cher Lloyd now from 'most hated teen' to Cheryl feud status and new career

Singer Cher Lloyd blew X Factor judges away in 2010 with her vibrant rendition of Soulja Boy's Turn My Swag - and nobody was more impressed than Cheryl.

Declaring, "You are right up my street", to the delight of the then-16-year-old Cher, Girls Aloud icon Cheryl quickly became a mentor and friend to the budding popstar.

Despite her obvious talent, sadly Cher's time on the show was overshadowed by rumours of tantrums that saw her cruelly branded the 'most hated teen' in Britain - a brutal label that would take her a decade to shed. And her bond with Cheryl did not last, resulting in a bitter years-long feud between the two women.

Now a 31-year-old mother-of-two with a new single on the horizon, Cher's life couldn't look any more different from her fiery X Factor days...

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The tide of public opinion first turned when Cheryl controversially put Cher through the Boot Camp stage to the detriment of fan favourite Gamu Nhengu.

Rumours of backstage strops began to fly, and Cher was forced to perform in Cheryl's heels after she admitted having an epic meltdown over her X Factor outfit. "I had a bit of a meltdown earlier in the week," she told X magazine at the time, "But I just couldn't go on stage in something I felt uncomfortable in.'

At the time, Judge Louis Walsh branded Cher "too big for her boots", and she was even cruelly booed off the stage at the V Festival. "I was a beast! Everyone hated me," Cher admitted to Fabulous magazine in 2012. "I was young and foolish. Part of me was trying to show I was strong enough to do it, and then I think it all got too much for me.

"I was angry with the way I was being edited, and because of that, I turned into this horrible person with a terrible attitude.” Things only got worse when she was eliminated in the first round of the finals and went on to accuse Cheryl of abandoning her.

"I didn't have her mobile number to begin with. I've got more chance of winning the lottery than catching up with her," Cher, who is originally from Malvern, Worcestershire, said on the release of her hit single, Swagger Jagger.

When asked if she'd do a duet with Cheryl, she then made a barb about the Girls Aloud star using autotune and challenged her mentor to sing live with her. Needless to say, Cheryl was raging and tweeted: "Be Careful who you kick on your way up. They kick you twice as hard on your way back down.. #unappreciationisugly."

Cher quickly back-tracked, admitting on ITV's daybreak that she "shouldn't have" gone in on the Geordie star. "I just want to say sorry to her if she found that offensive. But at the end of the day, she is the person who got me to where I am today," Cher said, eating a hearty helping of humble pie.

She added: "[Being young] is not an excuse, I should still be on top of it. I’m in the public eye now, so word vomit is not good!" Cher then moved to the States in 2012 and achieved a number 12 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with Want You Back.

Her second US single, Oath, only reached number 73, and in 2014, she split with her American label Epic amid claims she was unhappy about the delays with her second album, Sorry I'm Late.

Meanwhile, she'd met and fallen in love with London hairdresser Craig Monk, who she married in a secret ceremony in November 2013, at the age of just 20, and after less than a year of dating. While appearing on Loose Women in 2019, she gushed about their idyllic relationship.

She said: "I got married when I was 20, you know when you grow up and dream of that fairy tale of course we've had our ups and downs, but honest it is like a fairy tale with me and him. We lived [in Los Angeles] for a while; that was like a dream. Fortunately, we went over. I had one suitcase, and I thought I was just going for a bit of promo, and we ended up staying there about three or four years."

After moving back to the UK, they lived a simple life, renovating a house in Essex to sell and welcoming their daughter Delilah-Rae in May 2018. These days, Cher is a completely different person - so much so that she refuses to perform Swagger Jagger because it reminds her of her "angry, afraid" self.

"I’m a mother to a little girl. I’ve released two albums and I’ve got a top 10 hit in America. I’m not ‘the most hated teen’, I’m 26 years old! We’ve moved on!" she told the Guardian in 2020.

"I had to do damage control. And still, I have to do damage control. Years later, I do have some anger towards people for doing that to me.”

And in terms of where she's at with Cheryl, the former buddies exchanged well wishes upon their respective marriages. Back in 2016, Cher even told Loose Women they'd buried the hatchet 'ages ago'. However, that doesn't mean they're back to being the inseparable pair they once were, with Cher also admitting they are not in touch with each other.

"I haven’t heard from her in a long time, she’s so busy with the baby. She’s got baby!" she told ITV's Lorraine, referring to Cheryl's young son Bear.

As for her reputation, Cher says that is something she's trying to take ownership of and work past. "Looking back, I can see why people thought I was a nightmare, and I'm totally embarrassed," she told the Guardian.

"That's one of the hardest things for me to deal with because that's my past, and you've sort of got to look at it as a huge learning experience. It's literally like taking your trousers down and doing a p**s in front of the world."

In 2020, Cher claimed that music bosses had tried to pressure her into entering a fake romance with a fellow celebrity to boost her fame. Despite smashing her way onto the top of the charts in her early career, Cher says she was asked to date a fellow star to boost her profile.

She rejected the suggestion and says her being fake goes against the very nature of her personality. "They gave me a few suggestions but it was just a crazy thing to ask," Cher said to The Sun. "Sadly, it still happens. That's still happening in this day and age - that it's still OK to try to make a young girl do something like that to boost a career," she went on. "I am never going to be that girl, I was never going to be that girl."

In October 2021, Cher was heartbroken when she lost her "best boy" Buddy, a French bulldog. She announced the sad news on Instagram that Buddy had died aged nine. Cher told how she is "absolutely broken" and added that her pooch was "the best boy" in a touching tribute.

"Yesterday we said goodbye to Buddy," she penned. Cher continued: "Our hearts are absolutely broken. You were such a good boy Bud, the best boy. Over 9 years of love, we will miss you and remember you forever."

In September 2023, Cher welcomed her second daughter Eliza Violet, and the next month shared sweet photographs of she and her two children visiting a pumpkin patch. Back in May, Cher revealed she'd been in a car accident with Delilah-Rae and Eliza Violet after her brakes failed, taking to social media to share a terrifying warning with fans. Uploading a photo of her Ford Ranger, Cher explained that she'd had a total engine failure and that her kids had been in the car with her when it happened.

She explained: "This is my Ford Ranger. My brakes totally failed with no warning while driving with my baby and my 5-year-old. Total engine failure due to the wet belt. To anyone who owns one or is thinking of buying one, BEWARE! I'm counting my lucky stars that my family is safe. This beautiful vehicle, however, has retired well before her time @forduk."

Meanwhile, in August 2024, Cher opened up candidly about the pressures of motherhood, revealing that she sometimes "needs space" from her two kids during the summer holidays due to feeling "overstimulated". Opening up in a TikTok clip, the mum-of-two said she was struggling to deal with the baby crying, the dog barking, and also her long inbox of unread emails as she juggled parenthood with her career.

The former X Factor star could be seen lip-syncing along to a video in which a woman asked her friend: "Are you alright?" She replied: "I just need a bit of space if that's okay." The singer wrote in the caption: "MOTHERRRRR. #space #okay #overstimulatedmum."

Her new single Head Down will be released on January 17.

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