Liam Payne had a Christmas wish for his son, Bear, before his tragic passing this year.
The One Direction star and Cheryl Tweedy separated when their son was just a baby. However, as reported by The Mirror, Christmas always remained a time for family.
The two pop stars co-parented each festive season, striving to give Bear the most special Christmas possible. Sadly, this year will be heartbreakingly different following Liam’s death on October 16, at the age of 31, in a horrific fall from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
This means that Bear’s first Christmas without his dad will be especially difficult, as Liam had always been determined to make the holiday magical for him.
In a 2018 interview with *This Morning*, Liam shared his plans for the holidays, saying, “I’m going to go down and see Bear, maybe cook a Christmas dinner and just hang out with family. Yeah, we’re going to go down and cook some food and hang out.” He added, “I think it’s the first time he really gets Christmas now.
I want to see if he actually gets unwrapping presents this year though, because otherwise, it’ll just be Cheryl by the tree again. I can really remember it from last year, she wrapped them all up and then unwrapped them and I just sat there going, ‘Right, what is this?'”
Despite their separation, Cheryl, 41, and Liam always spoke highly of each other and praised each other’s parenting. They ended their relationship shortly after Bear’s first birthday but continued to co-parent amicably, even living near each other to make the arrangement easier.
On Logan Paul’s *Impaulsive* podcast, Liam spoke about their positive dynamic, saying, “I get to take my son to school one or two times a week and it’s the best thing. The relationship we have now as friends has only grown more.”
