Liam Payne has admitted he and Cheryl "have our struggles", but they work through them together and are committed to each other.
Cheryl and Liam Payne
The former One Direction star and Girls Aloud singer have seen their relationship fall under scrutiny this year before making a rare public appearance together at the BRIT Awards.
Liam told ES magazine: "The funniest thing was a week before we were getting married. The next week we're splitting up. And the thing for me is, I just like to think we're somewhere in the middle. You know, we have our struggles - like of course I'm not gonna sit here and say that everything's absolutely fine and dandy, because of course you go through different things, and that's what a relationship is. But we go through them together as a family and that's the most important thing for me. This part of our relationship was never not going to happen, there was always going to be a little bit of tenseness in the way we sort ourselves out, but tell me a relationship in the world that doesn't go through a spot like that? It's about whether you make it through or not, together, is the main point there I guess."
The 24-year-old singer and Cheryl, 34, have been in a relationship for two years and have a 12-month-old son Bear together and Liam believes their relationship works because they both have similar careers and understand what it is like to live life in the spotlight.
He said: "[I'm] very fortunate that I partnered up with someone who is ... very understanding with what I do. Because I don't think anybody else could take it. It's difficult, obviously: having someone else who's so high-profile in the media pushes everything that I do to another level, and I think it's weird. I feel like the press are more obsessed with it than the nation are, which is quite funny."
Liam added: "It is about making it work for us, not making it work how people think it should work."
But the 'Strip That Down' singer insisted he and Cheryl are in "full agreement" that they must protect their son Bear from the glare of the public eye.
Liam said: "Rather than being pictured and being put in places, I wanna give him the chance [of a life outside of the public eye].
"If I take it away from him now, he never has the chance to go back."
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