Liam Payne & Cheryl Cole Are Breaking Up & Twitter Is Absolutely Floored

Whenever a former member of One Direction gets into a relationship, the rest of the world is on high alert and wants to hear about all the details. And oh, we got them — up until the very end. Now, the tweets about Liam Payne and Cheryl Cole's breakup show that we're all just like, "What?!?"

Of all the celebrity makeups and breakups that everyone has experienced over the past couple of months, this one has definitely been the one that wasn't expected to happen. After a long and beautiful relationship, British pop superstar Cheryl Cole and One Direction's Liam Payne have agreed to go their separate ways, as they've announced their split on July 1. Payne shared the news of their breakup via Twitter, where he said,

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.

Cole shared a similar announcement, writing,

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.

Payne and Cole were together for two years, and had one child together — Bear, who was born in March of 2017 and is just over a year old as of his parents' split. Although rumors emerged back in February that the two would marry, they were quickly followed by rumors of a split — so basically, it's all been back and forth.

I am so completely heartbroken, and I may have most all hope for finding love for myself after hearing this news. Fan reactions to Payne and Cole's split got a ton of mixed reviews on social media.

Some Twitter users weren't shocked at all. They were even laughing about the news of Payne and Cole's breakup, portraying it as an inevitable fact.

Others were defending their love of the One Direction star, saying that he should be protected in spite of this very recent split.

And some people were just ready to revisit their original OTP.

Seriously though, this news is super unsetting. I hate to see that a couple with a child needs to part ways in any scenario — and unfortunately it happens way too often. But the world sort of knew that this relationship wasn't off to the right foot for a little bit now. In an interview with Evening Standard in Britain, Payne said,

You know, we have our struggles — like, of course I’m not gonna sit here and say that everything’s absolutely fine and dandy, because of course you go through different things, and that’s what a relationship is. But we go through them together as a family and that’s the most important thing for me.

Despite that fact, we were rooting for you, Liam. We were all rooting for you.

What almost makes it all worse is that it's also just the latest in what feels like a spate of celebrity breakups. We lost Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux, and heck, even golden couple Posh and Becks were rumored to be on the outs. (Thankfully, that last one turned out to not be true — for now.) I need someone to go and check in on Chrissy Teigen and John Legend right now. You guys are OK, right? OK.

At the very least, it looks like Payne and Cole are going through the breakup the best they can — with mutual respect and a focus on their little one. Thumbs up, guys.