Cheryl Cole says her mother is her biggest role model

The 26-year-old pop star insists her mother Joan Callaghan inspired her to be a better person because she has such a positive outlook on life.

Cheryl – who moved Joan into her marital home while she was still living with her now estranged husband Ashley Cole - said: My mum's a great person. When I was growing up, she was never somebody who commented on other women. You know you hear women commenting on other women in a mean way? My mother was never like that. Everybody is lovely in her eyes."

The Girls Aloud singer accepts she is now a role model to thousands of women, but it is something she is comfortable with and proud of.

She added in an interview with Style magazine: "If you could just give me one word to be, 'inspirational' would be the one. I want to inspire women to make the best of themselves. Like, one woman, said to me, 'I've got you on my fridge door to inspire me to go to the gym,' and I felt like that about Britney Spears when she did 'I'm a Slave 4 You'. So to think that I can be inspiring someone like that – or in any kind of way – is great."