True love or publicity stunt? We explore Cheryl and Liam’s romance

Mar 3, 2016

We were sceptical to say the least about the reported romance between the recently-divorced Cheryl and One Direction's Liam Payne when it broke last weekend, but the pair have since confirmed the romance.

Well, sort of.

They are definitely teasing fans with social media posts and some cryptic messages.

So is it real or have they been playing a big ol' trick on us? Here's all the evidence:

1) Initial rumours

The story was 'broken' by British tabloid the Sun in a huge front-page splash last weekend which seemed to come out of nowhere.

The paper reported that the duo were a few months into their relationship and very happy.

While Liam and Cheryl may have simply decided to come clean about their romance, reports have speculated that they could also have just decided to play along…

2) THAT Tesco snap

A picture of Liam and Cheryl reportedly doing some grocery shopping in a Tesco in Guildford earlier this week emerged, supposedly confirming the romance.

Though it certainly looks like them, the photo was taken from behind thus leaving it open to suspicion.

Also we find it hard that the pair would be picking up groceries together in a small town in rural England at midnight.

3) Those comments

Liam was also caught commenting on Cheryl's Instagram snap that she shared as she headed off to the Brits.

4) Liam's Instagram

Liam (the scamp) appeared to confirm the rumours by changing his Instagram profile pic to a picture of him topless with his arm around Cheryl.

He also changed his profile description to simply: "Happy"

However, the next day he deleted both the pic and the description. Hmm.

3) The Mystery Men

All of a sudden, Cheryl and Liam began openly posting pics of each other as they spent time together yesterday.

First, Chezza shared a snap of herself with man's arm around her. The arm was later confirmed to be Liam's when she posted another pic featuring herself, Liam (donning the same purple jumper as the aforementioned photo) and two other men.

"My mystery man line up," read the cryptic caption followed by the hashtag #whosworthit, which is the tagline of L'oreal with whom Cheryl has a contract.

Considering that Cheryl was clearly doing some publicity for her various brands on the day, fans have been speculating that Liam was present to drum up some publicity…

4) Finally, that tweet