The whole country, it seems, has fallen in love with Cheryl Cole. From the first time she stood up to Simon Cowell or shed a genuine tear on hearing a heartbreaking story from one of the X Factor contestants she has found a place in the hearts of a nation. Now, a genuine superstar, she has never forgotten her humble beginnings in Newcastle and for the first time the real story of her difficult path to fame and fortune can be told. The UK's leading celebrity biographer Sean Smith has retraced the steps of her remarkable journey using new research and interviews to reveal the real woman behind the beautiful public face. He discovers a cheeky, feisty, and gifted Geordie girl who has had to battle for everything she has achieved. Cheryl's story begins in a grim, working class area of Newcastle where the lives of her friends and family were blighted by drugs and unemployment. Smith explores the ambitions of a little girl who became a championship dancer and a successful child model but would bunk off school and, at the age of sixteen, entered into a relationship with a drug addict more than ten years older than herself. But thanks largely to her remarkable mother, Joan, Cheryl took her chance to win Popstars: the Rivals and become part of Girls Aloud, the most successful girl group in UK pop history. Disaster followed in 2003 when she was convicted of an assault on a nightclub toilet attendant and her dreams of stardom almost vanished. The public forgave her then, offered sympathy following allegations of her husband, footballer Ashley Cole's infidelity, before her emergence on the X Factor as an iconic figure for modern women everywhere. As her every move is scrutinised by a celebrity hungry public, Smith discusses what the future holds for Cheryl. Fully illustrated, Cheryl is the definitive biography of this most human of superstars.