Liam Payne and Cheryl Cole's relationship takes work, but they are still together, despite breakup rumors that have followed them.
The former One Direction singer finally addressed his relationship with the Evening Standard's ES Magazine.
"The funniest thing was a week before we were [reportedly] getting married. The next week we're splitting up. And the thing for me is, I just like to think we're somewhere in the middle," he 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."
The couple shares a 1-year-old son, Bear.
It's important, he said, to work though issues "together as a family."
"This part of our relationship was never not going to happen; there was always going to be a little bit of tenseness in the way we sort ourselves out," he said. "But tell me a relationship in the world that doesn't go through a spot like that? It's about whether you make it through or not, together, is the main point there, I guess."
In the interview, he refers to Cheryl as his "missus," and says he's "very fortunate" to date someone in the music industry (she was a member of the group Girls Aloud).
"It's difficult, obviously. Having someone else who's so high-profile in the media pushes everything that I do to another level, and I think it's weird," he said of his lady. "I feel like the press are more obsessed with it than the nation are, which is quite funny…It is about making it work for us, not making it work how people think it should work."
While Liam and Cheryl make rare appearances together, they plan on keeping their son out of the public eye.
"Rather than being pictured and being put in places, I wanna give him the chance [to live privately]," Payne adds. "If I take it away from him now, he never has the chance to go back."