Liam Payne sets an example for his little one!
The 30-year-old One Direction alum graced the billboards on Friday to promote his new single, “Teardrops” — and shared his son Bear Grey’s sweet reaction to the ads.
In posts on Instagram and x (formerly Twitter), Payne shared a photo of the 6-year-old looking at one of the singer’s billboards and revealed in his caption that Bear wants to follow in his dad’s footsteps one day.
“I want to be on a billboard one day dad,” he wrote of what his son said, adding a bear and heart emoji.
Bear, son of Liam Payne.
Liam Payne/X
Reacting to a rare photo of Bear, Payne’s fans expressed surprise at how much the child Payne welcomed with ex Cheryl Cole in 2017 has grown.
“HOW IS HE SO BIG?” one commenter wrote, while another said: “He’s so big, it feels like he was born yesterday.”
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Talking to British Vogue last year Cole, 40, revealed that Bear likes having famous parents. Or, in her words, “it bothers him” that they are famous.
“The other day he said, ‘How lucky am I to have famous parents?’ I said, ‘It doesn’t matter.’ He goes, ‘Yeah. But that’s pretty cool,'” she said.
The “Fight For This Love” singer also told the paper that she wants her and Payne’s 6-year-old to “have a normal childhood.”
“I don’t want people to recognize him on the street,” she explained.
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Cheryl Cole and Liam Payne in 2018.
Dave Bennett/Getty
Payne, who had Bear at 23, previously spoke about parenthood to PEOPLE, admitting in 2018 that he “always wanted to be a young dad” — but becoming a father at a young age wasn’t easy.
He clarified this in a later interview, telling PEOPLE that “it took me a long time to find my footing.”
“I had a son when I was young and you think it’s going to be a magical thing, that one day you’re going to grow into the person you’re supposed to be,” he said in 2020. “But it took a lot to find my footing. I realized, dad he takes care of everything, that’s what he does, so my thing was to cook.”
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Besides cooking, Payne — who split from Cheryl in 2018 — also prioritizes quality time with Bear, he told PEOPLE in 2022.
I see him twice a week, sometimes three times a week, he said then. “And I make sure that when I see him he has 100 percent of my time. I make sure I’m not on the phone or messing around somewhere else.”
“So I like to give him those moments and that’s important,” he added. “He needs that in his life. He needs his dad in his life, and I’m happy that he sees me as a superhero, and I’m hoping it stays that way.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education