With a tweet, it's over for Cheryl and Ashley Cole: They were so in love with themselves, the marriage never stood a chance
By Alison Boshoff and Sara Nathan
http://www.dailymail.co.uk
Cheryl Cole has finally filed for divorce from her husband Ashley, months after rumours of his cheating ways hit the headlines.
The legal papers were lodged at the High Court on Tuesday afternoon - while Cole was deep in preparations for the World Cup.
His spokesman has refused to comment, saying it is a private matter. But Cheryl's PR company Supersonic had no such qualms, posting on Twitter: 'We can confirm the divorce.'
And so, after four exhausting months of carefully crafted but increasingly idiotic PR stunts, it's over.
The marriage of Cheryl Tweedy and Ashley Cole, which was forged in the vulgar crucible of OK! magazine for a fistful of cash, has been ended on Twitter with a blunt confirmation from her PR company that she has filed for divorce.
It was always low-rent, and vulgar, and seemed never to be about anything so much as looking good - so the faddish superficiality of a 'tweet' is perhaps its perfect epitaph.
Not that Cheryl's team will leave it at that. In the latest piece of spin massage, a source tells us that she is being 'generous' in filing for divorce from Ashley now so that her philandering hubbie has a whole two weeks before the World Cup to get over it.
Indeed, we are asked to believe that the Geordie lass, 26, is initiating this divorce with a heavy heart - and is acting only in the public interest. 'Cheryl has put England's World Cup dreams ahead of herself,' the source sighs.
The truth, however, is that her decision to pull the plug this week looks suspiciously like she is trying to hang on to her status as the nation's sweetheart. Most women would have dumped a cheating husband months before.
Indeed, Dolly Dimple (as she's called by her bandmates) has been quick to make Ashley, 29, look as bad as possible at every turn.
We've had the drama of her removing her wedding ring and the hidden messages in her clothes (a T-shirt featuring a weeping woman and another reading 'I left my heart in Beverly Hills').
But now even she can recognise that the ridiculous will-she-won't-she pantomime is starting to wear thin.
Cheryl has retained the services of solicitor Joyce Smith, who represented Mick Jagger in his multi-million pound split from Jerry Hall. Miss Smith also represented Ronnie Wood when he and wife Jo divorced last November.
The divorce papers state that Cheryl confronted her husband over claims of his infidelities and that 'he admitted it'. She is said to want a 'divorce with dignity', and is keen for it to be as quick and painless as possible.
Her decision was greeted with relief by her mother Joan and friends who had feared that, during this cooling off period, there was a danger that Cheryl might take Ashley back.
He has been sending her plaintive texts and she replied with a message of congratulations when Chelsea won the FA Cup earlier this month.
And Ashley, who will be represented in the divorce by his lawyer Graham Shear, of Berwin Leighton Paisner, is said to be stunned by the decision to file the papers. He last night told a friend: 'I feel like someone has punched me in the stomach.'
And a source close to Cole added: 'Ashley feels that Cheryl has just bowed to pressure from her mum and her management company to finalise the divorce.
'He is devastated and feels that she has filed the papers right now to scupper his World Cup chances.'
Yesterday he returned to Irdning, Austria with the rest of the England squad to continue their pre-tournament preparations.
The couple have been together since 2004. She was already famous thanks to Girls Aloud; his football career was similarly well-established. They dated for nine months before Ashley proposed in Dubai.
Coverage of their wedding in 2006 was sold to OK! magazine for £1.5million. The bride wore a £110,000 Roberto Cavalli dress; the groom wore white, with a white rose and a diamond earring.
Pandering to celebrity magazine headline-writers, Cheryl cooed: 'This is the man I am going to have my babies with', adding that he had a 'beautiful soul'.
But with two such narcissists, was this celebrity romance ever as solid as it was sold? Particularly if you stripped away the mansion, the sports cars, the diamonds and the designer clothes.
They seemed to share a common interest in making and spending cash and being admired.
The money rolled in. A £200,000 deal to promote the Lottery; his much-derided move from Arsenal to Chelsea for £120,000 a week; and her £1.75million two-year contract as a judge on ITV's X Factor (on top of her £1.5million a year from Girls Aloud).
But however perfect things looked from the outside, there were ominous signs. Within a few months, Ashley had allegedly cheated on her with hairdresser Aimee Walton.
When the story emerged in January 2008, Cheryl took off her ring, lost weight and took a holiday with her girlfriends.
Eventually, she took her husband back - accepting he had been drunk and had gone home with the girl, but believed that he was 'not capable' of physically being unfaithful when he was in a state through drink.
Anyone else might have had a bit more pause for thought. But Cheryl hung on to her husband with the same determination which had helped her escape her upbringing in Heaton, near Newcastle, and make a career in showbiz.
One of five children, she grew up on a council estate. Her mother Joan always believed that her daughter was a star in the making - and so did Cheryl.
Mum entered her in the Boots Bonniest Baby competition, which she won, and from that modest beginning Joan pushed her willing daughter into the spotlight.
At 16, Cheryl beat more than 9,000 hopefuls to win a place at the Royal Ballet Summer School in London. In 2002 she auditioned for Popstars: The Rivals, and steamed through the heats to become the first girl chosen for Girls Aloud.
After their wedding, Cheryl continued to lean on her mother, who spent a huge amount of time in her daughter's £6million married home in Surrey helping out (neither of the newlyweds could cook). She eventually moved in and became a constant presence in their lives.
Perhaps the relationship never had the chance to blossom into anything more than puppy love. Ironically, Cheryl said she only really trusted her dog and her mother.
And no wonder. In February, blonde model Sonia Wild, 28, came forward to say she had received X-rated photos from Ashley by text last summer.
Then football secretary Vicki Gough, 30, revealed that he had also sent her more than 300 smutty texts, including pictures of him naked and one of him standing in front of a mirror in a pair of white underpants. She said they slept together twice in hotel rooms when Chelsea were playing away.
Next, American government worker Ann Corbitt, 28, came out of the woodwork and said she had also slept with the footballer during Chelsea's tour of the U.S. last summer. Cheryl's humiliation was complete.
But she took her time to file for divorce. Friends say she still loved Ashley and believed strongly in the security of a relationship.
However, she has been moving on little by little. For the past few months she has been based in a hotel suite in London's Mayfair, and she has reportedly looked at a luxurious penthouse flat in Highgate, North London.
And she has made it clear that she can find a new mate. There was the tedious 'faux-mance' with dancer and Chihuahua enthusiast Derek Hough in Beverly Hills soon after she separated from Ashley.
This was followed by yet another improbable liaison, with Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas. They were pictured cuddling up at a party in Cannes last week.
Even Ashley, who might be expected to feel jealous at the sight of his estranged wife being pawed by another man, has been telling friends that he knows it is 'a publicity stunt pure and simple'.
Such liaisons, though, make her appear desirable, and perhaps she needed that fillip after the stories about Ashley.
For a girl bewitched with the trappings of fame, the idea of a marriage to a footballing superstar was an obvious first goal.
But even though that's now in ruins, 'our lass' Cheryl's addiction to Planet Celebrity means she'll pick herself up and move on to play bigger games - a little more wary and a lot more independent.
A source close to the singer told the Mail that she will not be chasing a big settlement.
'Cheryl maintained from day one that, if the separation led to divorce she didn't want any of Ashley's money. And nothing has changed in the intervening period,' the source said.
'Cheryl is over the worst of it all. She's feeling better and is trying to move on with her life.'
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