Cheryl reunited with her Girls Aloud bandmates Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts for a sweet selfie shared to Instagram on Thursday.
The previous evening, the Fight For This Love singer, 42, stepped out publicly for the first time since her ex-boyfriend Liam Payne’s funeral to support Nicola at the gala night of Hadestown at the Lyric Theatre in London.
Posing for a mirror selfie behind the scenes, the trio beamed in costume-clad Nicola’s dressing room, which was packed with flowers for the big opening.
Cheryl added a caption to the shot reading: ‘Congratulations @hadestownuk on a brilliant opening night @lilcola I am so very proud of you..
‘Watching you step so far out of your comfort zone and still delivering at that level was overwhelming for me. The entire cast and score are incredible’.
The iconic girl band comprised Nadine Coyle, Kimberley, 43, Cheryl, Nicola, 39, and Sarah Harding, who passed away from breast cancer in 2021, aged 39.
In May last year, the group returned to the stage for the first time in 11 years to go on a huge UK tour, where their late bandmate was kept as the focus throughout.
Nicola’s big night marks the first public outing for Cheryl since she attended the funeral of her ex-partner and father of her son Bear last year.
In November following his death, the hitmaker appeared in a pre-recorded Girls Aloud interview for ITV.
Then, in August, she was revealed as the new face of skincare brand Nivea which marked her gradual return to the spotlight. Last week, her killer stalker was jailed once again for breaching a restraining order.
Convicted killer Daniel Bannister, 50, ‘can’t stay away’ from the Girls Aloud star, and has already spent time in prison for the same offence.
At Reading Crown Court on Tuesday, a judge sentenced him to 12 months in jail after he admitted a single charge of breaching a restraining order. In a victim impact statement, Cheryl revealed she is ‘on edge every time I open my gate’.
Following the sentencing, sources close to Cheryl say she has been ‘in a really bad place’ but Bear is ‘her world’ and she wants to just focus on him, ahead of his father’s first anniversary.
A source close to Cheryl told The Mirror: ‘She’s of course relieved that he’s been jailed, and she just wants to focus on Bear now, but she also knows he started up again after the last time he was jailed too so it’s hard to totally move on.
‘But she’s a fiercely strong woman and Bear is her world, so he’s her only focus right now.’
The source added: ‘Everyone’s hoping she can concentrate on what’s important to her now, and be able to mark the anniversary of Liam’s death properly, without this horrendous thing weighing on her.’
Last week, scenes of Liam in a 2019 documentary with Ant Middleton were reposted on TikTok, which showed how close he and Cheryl remained even after their split.
In the show, Ant Middleton & Liam Payne: Straight Talking, the pair travelled to Namibia for a hard-hitting survival adventure.
Ant then asked Liam about his relationship with Cheryl and Bear, and he said: ‘We found our own unique situation around things, and obviously it’s not the most normal situation in the world, granted.
‘At this stage in my life, what even is normal anymore. For the majority of it, my life’s really abnormal, so why would that be any different?’
