Liam Payne ‘Romance’ Has All The Hallmarks Of A One Direction Stunt

Fans of Liam Payne and One Direction tend to take any reported romance involving a member of the band with a pinch of salt. Truth told, Payne’s fans are so sick of seeing PR stunts involving members of One Direction that it is probably fair to say they take Liam’s latest romance rumor with the contents of a Siberian salt mine rather than a pinch. Payne’s fans need no reminding that Liam pretty much dropped out of sight after One Direction completed the promotional tour for their Made In The A.M. album.

Through December and beyond Payne’s bandmates Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, and Harry Styles were all linked with new women. Horan’s supposed romance with Selena Gomez fell apart after about five minutes. As reported in The Inquisitr, many believe that Harry Styles’ reported hook-up with Kendall Jenner was a short-lived PR stunt to cover up the fact that Kendall is gay.

With regard to Liam’s BFF Louis Tomlinson, the media does not know which way to turn. They can’t decide between reporting on baby Tomlinson, Louis reported custody fight with Briana Jungwirth or his “romance” with Danielle Campbell. Things are much simpler when it comes to Liam Payne.

1D fans go into meltdown over rumoured split between Liam and Cheryl https://t.co/tzZJHKNjxa

— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) March 2, 2016

With Liam lying low for so long, the ground was ripe for a new romance story. The last time we heard anything about Payne’s love-life was back towards the end of One Direction’s last tour when it was widely reported, including in the Mirror, that Liam was “absolutely devastated” after his split from Sophia Smith.

Fans of Payne and One Direction will need no reminding that the band were forced to cancel a concert for the first time in their career when a scheduled show in Belfast was cancelled just moments before the boys were due on stage. The ever reliable Sun claimed that Liam had endured a “complete meltdown’ backstage and was unable to perform. Liam was reportedly struggling with the pressures of fame and the break-up of his relationship.

It seems that Payne made a miraculous recovery because, just weeks after his meltdown, The Sun would have us believe that Liam was over Sophia and had started dating former X-Factor judge Cheryl Fernandez-Versini. Cheryl is 10-years Liam’s senior, and at this point it is believed that she is still married to French businessman Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini.

As is so often the case when it comes to One Direction romance stories, the news of Liam’s new relationship was broken by was broken by The Sun’s Dan Wootton. As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Wootton is close to One Direction’s management and PR teams. The Sun’s U.S. editor Pete Samson is also married to Simon Cowell’s head of PR, Anne-Marie Samson. As a result One Direction’s fans treat any story from that source with the utmost suspicion.

Liam’s reported romance with an older member of the X-Factor team is hardly treading new ground. Anyone remember Harry Styles and Caroline Flack? It won’t have escaped Payne’s fans notice that Liam and Cheryl are both managed by the much maligned Modest Management team. Using Liam and Cheryl in a stunt to boost her profile is hardly beyond them.

Of course Liam has now shared a picture of himself and Cheryl on social media so now everyone believes that they are a couple, or not. Payne’s fans will not be surprised to see that Liam captioned the picture with a “smirking face” emoji.

The fact that Cheryl also posted a picture on social media which includes a line-up of three men she has been rumored to have been dating hardly inspires confidence that her reported romance with Payne is genuine. The fact that Liam used a picture of himself with Cheryl as his Instagram profile picture and removed it after a day has drawn much comment. The Daily Mail asked yesterday if Payne’s changing his profile picture so quickly meant that Liam and Cheryl had broken up already. Just hours later, the same outlet was describing Liam and Cheryl as “loved-up.”

The simple truth is that Liam and Cheryl’s reported romance has all the hallmarks of a PR stunt, it is as fake as having Christmas in July.

[Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP]