Liam Payne speaks about the struggle of leaving Cheryl and Bear behind while he goes off on tour

Liam Payne and his girlfriend Cheryl are facing 'hard' times ahead as they are forced to be apart while Liam goes off on tour and Cheryl stays at home in the UK to look after baby Bear.

New dad Liam Payne has made no secret of how proud he is to be a father to his baby son Bear. Gushing at every opportunity about his 'amazing' and 'brilliant' son, the former One Direction singer has said he feels 'very lucky' to have both Cheryl and Bear in his life.

So, it will come as no surprise to hear that the former One Direction star has been dreading being away from his partner and child while he goes off on tour to promote his music as a solo artist.

Liam confessed when speaking to American magazine Us Weekly that being away from Cheryl and Bear was both 'hard' on him and 'really hard on them', but he didn't feel he could take Bear with him on tour at such a young age.

'He’s going to stay with his mum until we really figure out what we’re doing.'

'It's hard being away... time differences with babies - it's really hard on them,' he explained.

'I don't want to drag him around the world for, you know, just for my sanity. We'll do it when the time is right.'

Liam is about to embark on an international tour that will see him play in several US states in a string of concerts that are scheduled right up until December 17th. With no more tour dates in the diary for 2017 after that, it's thought that Liam will be rushing home from America following his final concert to spend his son's very first Christmas at home with his family.

Talking to The Sun recently, Liam also revealed he and Cheryl already have aspirations for their baby son Bear to be bi-lingual, and the seven-month-old is already learning Spanish – whilst learning to talk too of course!

Describing his son's lessons in language, Liam described how they hope Bear with pick up Spanish words from a toy he plays with.

'He was bouncing around, it was counting in Spanish,' Liam explained, before confessing that he is actually learning Spanish now too as a result!