Cheryl admits she fancies dating a Sainsbury’s shelf-stacker after Liam Payne break-up — but The Greatest Dancer star won’t go on a dating app

SHE’S sold millions of records, has even more millions in the bank, and is one of Britain’s most beautiful women.

But Cheryl Tweedy is also one of pop’s most grounded stars — so much so, she fancies dating a “Sainsbury’s shelf-stacker”.

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Six months after her split from Liam Payne, dad to son Bear, the singer reckons she is “open” to love again and would like to meet someone non-famous.

While Cheryl is in no hurry to settle down, she admitted: “I heard Sheridan Smith met her boyfriend on Tinder and, absolutely, I would be open to meeting someone new, someone not in the industry.

“Not right now necessarily but at some stage. It doesn’t matter what they do, so long as he was a good guy and treated me right. I honestly wouldn’t care.

“I would 100 per cent date a shelf-stacker from Sainsbury’s. What you do doesn’t define you as a human being. Some people just don’t get the break they want, while some people are happy working at Sainsbury’s. It doesn’t matter.

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“I have absolutely no problem with being the breadwinner in a relationship. If, as women, we want to be classed as equal, why on earth should I? So long as he is happy to stay at home and take care of Bear.

“Is he a good person? With good intentions and a good soul? Do they treat me right? If the answer is ‘yes’ to all of these, then who gives a s**t if they stack shelves.

“I mean, it’s not like I want to be celibate forever. But I have no time frame for meeting someone — I’m just happy doing my thing. Whatever happens, happens.”

So, like Sheridan — who met fiance Jamie Horn on Tinder — would Cheryl join a dating app? In short, no.

“I heard about a celebrity one called Raya,” the 35-year-old said. “But no, I wouldn’t want to go on it.”

And has anyone cracked on to her over social media or slid into her DMs, as the kids say?

She insists no one has tried their luck of late — “They’re probably too put off reading about me!” — but says that was how she and One Direction hunk Liam, 25, first got together.

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Indeed, prospective partners beware: Cheryl and Liam remain very close.

Following an initially acrimonious break-up — Liam was pictured with two different models in the space of 48 hours, while Cheryl remained at home with their one-year-old son — today the pair are in regular contact.

Chatting in a suite at the Ham Yard Hotel in West London, she said: “There’s no animosity whatsoever. In fact, Liam spent Christmas Day with us. He cooked the turkey and everything at our home. His family came on the 23rd, and then he was in the house before I woke up on Christmas Day.

“It was lovely and things with us are great, which is lucky, really, because I have to listen to his songs 55,000 times a day. Bear’s got an obsession with the beginning of Familiar. We have to rewind it and play it all over again.”

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Liam moved out of the house the couple had shared in Surrey shortly after the split, while Cheryl has remained there with Bear. But she is soon to move to a £5million home outside London.

Cheryl is now back on our screens thanks to BBC1’s new Saturday night show The Greatest Dancer — and her love life has seen just as many twists and turns.

After springing to fame in 2002 as one-fifth of Girls Aloud — with Kimberley Walsh, Nicola Roberts, Sarah Harding and Nadine Coyle — she dated footballer Ashley Cole.

The couple married in 2006 but divorced four years later after allegations he had cheated. She then met and wed French restaurateur Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini in 2014, but the pair called time on their marriage 18 months later.

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Cheryl finally appeared to have found happiness after falling for Liam, who she first met when he auditioned for The X Factor aged 14. But in July last year they too confirmed their separation. Although Cheryl is open to the idea of meeting a new man, she has also previously dabbled with women. Well, one woman.

She laughed: “I snogged Kimberley [Walsh] once. It was a drunken night out, but still, I have a lot of explaining to do to Bear!”

And supermarket workers shouldn’t be dusting off their lucky pants just yet, because Cheryl hasn’t stepped foot in a high street store for four years.

Such is her level of fame, she feels “uncomfortable” venturing out in public. She admits to being something of a “hermit” in the past few years — shunning the limelight to focus on her friends and family.

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Asked if she has a Tesco Club Card or a Nectar card, she looks genuinely bemused.

“Er, no,” she shrugs. “I’ve no idea when I last went to Sainsbury’s or Tesco’s; I do everything online.

“I actually wanted to go on the Underground recently but everyone was like, ‘Urrgh, don’t do it, it’s not a nice experience’.

“Once upon a time you could go about your business but now everyone’s a paparazzo, filming you on the sly. I can’t relax.

“I actually miss being able to go to Sainsbury’s. I liked roaming around. I still do some low-key stuff now, but I shove a cap on.”

Cheryl is as funny off-screen as she is on. And contrary to recent speculation, she is also an au naturel beauty — free of Botox, filler or any injectionables whatsoever.

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With the exception of when I ask after her beloved bulldog, Coco — “dead” — the only low point of the interview comes when I ask about claims she’s had a little cosmetic help. After releasing a teaser for her comeback single Love Made Me Do It, some fans accused her of having a “trout pout” and a non-moving face.

“Who said that? When was it said?” Cheryl asked, raising a non-Botoxed eyebrow. “I wasn’t aware of any criticism.”

Backtracking, I suggest it was “commentary, not criticism”.

“Well it’s hardly f***ing great, is it?” she snaps.

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For the record, she has had no work done — and looks annoyingly amazing in the flesh. But she has had her fair share of detractors, and now employs security after receiving death threats and having to call in police over a stalker.

She added: “I’ve had the same person constantly sending me weird messages, and nasty things said. I have security now for big things as you just never know.

“Obviously fame isn’t always perfect. But right now — doing The Greatest Dancer and recording my music — I am happy. I feel level, settled in my skin and just comfortable in who I am.”

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