Liam Payne Reveals It Was Simon Cowell Who Set Him Up With Girlfriend Cheryl

Liam Payne has revealed that Simon Cowell played cupid by helping to set him up with his girlfriend Cheryl.

The music mogul, who helped One Direction become global superstars, was working with Cheryl on ‘The X Factor’ at the time and, alongside Liam’s 1D bandmate Niall Horan, went about pulling strings.

In an interview with Radio 1Xtra, Liam explained: “It just came about one day. [One Direction band mate] Niall came up to me and said, ‘You’ll never guess who’s got a crush on you?’

“And I was like, ‘who?’ He’s like, ‘Cheryl’. Niall hooked it up. Simon kind of half hooked it up.

“I was saying something about Cheryl one night in Simon’s house, and he was like, ‘I think I know who is going to be the future Mrs Payne’, and I was like ‘Who are you on about?’” the star continued.

“He was like, ‘I’m not telling you, you’ll have to wait and see’.

“They played cupid. If you ever need anything hooking up, those are your boys.

Liam and Cheryl welcomed their first child, a son named Bear, into the world in March, but he’s said the couple have no plans to walk down the aisle just yet, despite referring to Cheryl as his “wife” in a recent interview.

He told Radio 1’s Nick Grimshaw: “I see marriage as more of a religious thing and I’m not really a religious person, so I know it’s not really on the cards for me at the moment.”

Earlier this week, the 23-year-old admitted Cheryl tried to end their relationship in a phone call, but he persuaded her to stick it out.

Speaking to The Sun’s Bizarre Life podcast, Liam says the call inspired a song on his forthcoming solo album.

He said: “There’s one song that is basically a phone call that happened between me and her when she was about to let it go.

“This is a long time ago. And it’s basically me trying to cling on and say: ‘No, no, no it’s all going to work out, don’t worry about it, give it time.’”