Cheryl Cole got all broody and wanted kids before she embarked on her solo career - until will.i.am convinced her to hit the studio.
With her career soaring thanks to her star role on The X Factor and her marriage to Ashley Cole going well - Chezza insists she had no plans to release her own material until after she became a mum.
But after much encouragement from her American mentor, Cheryl started to write tracks, and released Fight For This Love, which was a smash hit.
Cheryl tells Popjustice: "It was actually him [will.i.am] that convinced me to do a solo record. I never would have done a solo record without him. At the time, I would have had a family. At the time I was still married!
"But it was actually Will saying to us, 'You know you're going to do a solo record, right?', and I was saying, 'I don't want to, not yet.'
"And he was like, 'I think you should. You need to.' He said, 'I'm excited, I want to be involved with it.' So he was involved from day one."
The solo work came before her bitter split from love rat Ashley, who she divorced in 2010 following rumours he had cheated on her.
The brunette beauty has longed to be a mum for several years, even after the breakdown of her marriage.
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