Cheryl Cole and Liam Payne have officially announced their break up.

Just hours after her 35th birthday, Cheryl Cole has announced that she and former One Direction star Liam Payne will be “going [their] separate ways”.

“We are sad to announce that we are going our separate ways. It’s been a tough decision for us to make,” Cheryl wrote on Twitter.

“We still have so much love for each other as a family. Bear is our world and we ask that you respect his privacy as we navigate our way through this together,” she continued.

We are sad to announce that we are going our separate ways. It’s been a tough decision for us to make. We still have so much love for each other as a family. Bear is our world and we ask that you respect his privacy as we navigate our way through this together.

— Cheryl (@CherylOfficial) July 1, 2018

Liam made an almost identical statement on his own Twitter page.

Cheryl and I are sad to announce that we are going our separate ways. It’s been a tough decision for us to make. We still have so much love for each other as a family. Bear is our world and we ask that you respect his privacy as we navigate our way through this together.

— Liam (@LiamPayne) July 1, 2018

The former couple are both British singers and met in 2008 when the then 24-year-old Cheryl was on the judging panel of X Factor, which Liam, then 14, was competing in.

It wasn’t until the Cheryl’s second marriage disintegrated in 2016 that the friendship developed into something romantic.

The couple went on to have their son, Bear.

Earlier this year, journalist Dan Wootton, who has broken every story about the disintegration of Cheryl’s personal life, speculated in his column that the couple was close to breaking point.

In Wootton’s piece, he discussed how the couple “have held crisis talks” and how “the success of the former One Direction singer’s solo career has meant Cheryl, is left with their 11-month-old son Bear for weeks at a time.”

The reports were not denied by the couple’s teams.