Friends rally round to support Cheryl Cole

Feb 28 2010 by Lisa Hutchinson, Sunday Sun

NORTH East favourite Cheryl Cole is going through marriage turmoil but she doesn’t have to Fight For This Love when it comes to getting Geordie support.

Friends, neighbours and teachers from Cheryl’s Tyneside childhood have backed her to get through her current troubles and believe she will come out stronger than ever.

Their words of comfort are being offered after weeks of tabloid coverage about her cheating football ace husband Ashley Cole.

Cole’s alleged affairs with at least five women led to the breakdown of his three-and-a-half-year marriage to the 26-year-old singer and X Factor judge, which was announced on Tuesday.

But the Sunday Sun has gathered words of wisdom from her pals on the council estate in Heaton, Newcastle, where she grew up.

Nicola Cowen, 37, a family friend, who lives only doors away from where Cheryl was brought up in Langhorn Close, said: “She was always in and out of my house when she lived here. She is a good friend and I know she will pull through. She is strong.

“I went to a couple of the Pop Idol shows when she won the competition to be in Girls Aloud.

“I used to go to her house in London before she met Ashley but then people’s lives change and I haven’t been to the mansion. He should never have done this to Cheryl, but there again he is a footballer who thinks he’s God’s gift. He should have more sense, he will never get anyone more beautiful and as nice as Cheryl.

“If Cheryl wants to have a bit of Geordie comfort she can come back home anytime and I will give her a cuddle. She always liked a cuddle off me.”

Former neighbour Barbara Oldham, 59, said: “I knew her when she lived across the road from me. She is a strong person and I think she’ll get through it. But boys will be boys and Ashley is not a nice person. She doesn’t deserve that.”

Earlier this month glamour girl Sonia Wild told how she received semi-naked pictures of Cole on her phone and claimed she had exchanged raunchy texts with him. Cole claimed his mobile phone was with a friend.

Secretary Vicki Gough told how she had sex on two occasions with Cole in 2008.