What to know about Liam Payne and Cheryl Cole's son, Bear

Liam Payne, who died on Oct. 16 after falling from a balcony in Argentina, was a singer and former member of the hit boy band One Direction. He was also a proud father.

The 31-year-old artist welcomed a son, Bear, in March 2017 with singer Cheryl Cole.

In interviews, Payne often spoke about his son, what it was like becoming a young father and more.

In March, Payne shared a rare snap of his son looking at a billboard with his face on it.

"I want to be on a billboard one day daddy 🐻 ❤️," he captioned it.

Read on for more about Bear, the son of Liam Payne.

Bear was born on March 22, 2017

Payne and Cole welcomed their son on March 22, 2017, they announced on Instagram, according to People.

At the time, Payne was 23 years old. He and Cole started dating in 2016. They later announced their split in July 2018.

Payne spoke about the inspiration for his son's name on "The Late Late Show with James Corden" in September 2017. The singer said as a newborn, his son made a rumbling noise in his sleep, which led to him being assessed by specialists. Finally, one doctor said, "There's nothing wrong with him. He just likes to make a lot of noise."

"So he just became Bear," Payne said on the show.

Then in a 2018 interview with People, Payne, who had launched a solo music career after One Direction broke up in 2015, reflected on the unique joy of getting to make music for his son.

“For me, I love making great music for my fans. But when you make something that your son loves, it’s the best thing ever," he said at the time.

Liam Payne said he 'always wanted to be a young dad'

In the 2018 interview with People, Payne described what it was like to become a young dad, emphasizing that it was something he'd always wanted.

“I always wanted to be a young dad, but I didn’t really expect that I’d ever be in this place,” he said at the time.

“I had my son at a young age, and you think it will be a magical thing, that you’re going to grow up one day into the person you’re supposed to be,” he explained. “But it took a lot to find my footing. I figured, Dad takes care of everyone, that’s what he does, so my thing was to cook.”

At the time, he said his son growing up was already going “by so quickly.”

“He was already huge when he was born. I walked past a baby in the park and was like, ‘Mine was never that small!’ He was always massive,” Payne remarked about his son. “I look at him, like, ‘Where’s my little baby gone already?’”

Liam Payne co-parented Bear with Cheryl Cole

Cole is an English singer and television personality who rose to fame in 2002 while competing on ITV’s reality show "Popstars: The Rivals." She is also a member of the girl group Girls Aloud.

Payne confirmed in 2018 that he and Cole had broken up but were focused on co-parenting Bear.

"It’s been a tough decision for us to make," Payne wrote in a tweet to fans. "We still have so much love for each other as a family. Bear is our world and we ask that you respect his privacy as we navigate our way through this together."

Speaking about navigating his family while no longer with his son's mother, Payne explained that at the time Bear was living in the U.K. with Cole.

“Babies want their mom; I would never have wanted to get in the way of that,” Payne said in 2018. “It was actually easier to go out on the road just knowing he wanted his mom. Now he looks at me and points at me like, ‘Here’s this fun guy!’ He knows.”

In 2022, he told People that he saw Bear several times a week.

“I see him two times a week, three times a week sometimes,” he said at the time. “And I make sure when I see him, he has 100 percent of my time."