Cheryl Ann Tweedy (born in Newcastle, England; June 30, 1983) is a
British singer and member of the group Girls Aloud.
Career
Throughout her childhood Cheryl did lots of modelling and fashion
shows. She entered ballroom competitions, she sang, did some acting,
and was never beaten in a ballet competition.
She won the following competitions as a child.. Boots bonniest baby,
Mothercare Happy Faces Portrait competition, Best looking girl of
Newcastle, The Evening Chronicle 'little miss & mister' and Most
attractive girl at the Metro Centre.
Cheryl appeared in two British Gas adverts, an SCS advert, and an
Eldon Square Christmas advert with younger brother Garry.
Cheryl was working as a waitress when she entered the UK talent-search
show Popstars The Rivals. In the final show she received the most
votes in the poll to choose the girls for the all-female group Girls
Aloud, and was thus the first to be picked for the group.
Nightclub Incident
On January 11, 2003 Tweedy was involved in an altercation with a
nightclub toilet attendant, Sophie Amogbokpa, in the Drink nightclub
in Guildford, UK. Tweedy was subsequently charged with racially
aggravated assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. During
her trial Tweedy claimed she acted in self defence and denied using
racially abusive language.
The jury found her guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm,
but cleared her of the more serious charge of racially aggravated
assault. The judge sentenced her to 120 hours of community service and
ordered to pay her victim ?500 in compensation, as well as ?3000
prosecution costs. Critics claimed that the sentence imposed was
lenient. Some also believed that Tweedy's record company were planning
to drop her if the sentence was harsher.
Tweedy faced criticism not only for the initial incident, but also for
her subsequent public statements apologising to her fans, record
company and bandmates but not to Mrs Amogbokpa. Mrs Amogbokpa then
attempted to launch a civil court action against Tweedy, however this
never materialised.
Tweedy admitted she had acted incorrectly and regretted the incident
which took place under the influence of alcohol. She was angered by
claims she was racist, citing her friendship with Javine Hylton on
Popstars as evidence she was not.
Trivia
* She became engaged to professional football (soccer) player Ashley
Cole in 2005.
* She came second in the FHM 100 Sexiest Women poll in 2005, beating
the likes of Britney Spears and her bandmates Sarah Harding and Nadine
Coyle, only finishing behind Kelly Brook.
* Cheryl won a Sun Online poll in January 2006 to find the celebrity
people would most like to see topless on Page 3.