Kate Cassidy has been branded a gold digger

A WEEK ago today, I greeted Kate Cassidy for the very first time. It didn't feel like meeting a stranger; after all, for the past two years we've seen virtually every aspect of her life played out online. Romantic holidays? Tick. Intimate selfies? Yep. Date nights? Regularly. Yet the woman, 25, more a girl really, who hugged me tentatively was clearly very nervous. Sweetly shy at times, she was terrified to say the wrong thing lest she offend his beloved family, friends or the all-powerful army of One Direction fans.

Image Credit: The Sun [Woman wiping away tears during an interview.]

Sure: blonde, beautiful, and with an all-American Gen Z lilt, she looked the same. We'd had a stylist booked in for her, with a range of outfits at her disposal. She numbly took the first thing proffered, and wore it without a second glance. Surely that, for someone who is literally paid to be image-obsessed, is grief in action. Kate's young life behind a lens has clearly made her nervous. And who wouldn't be terrified of getting on the wrong side of Directioners - a vociferous, and exceedingly loyal, fandom who can take against anyone for the most minor of assumed misdemeanours.

Image Credit: The Sun [Kate Cassidy, Liam Payne's girlfriend, in an interview.]

Frequently Kate paused our filming, worrying she had stuttered, or phrased something inelegantly. Repeatedly she looked to her publicist for reassurance. There were heartfelt moments of sincerity. When she recalled the couple's favourite holiday in Lapland, when they were "running around like kids", she welled up. "Love is optimistic", she stated, as concisely and articulately as any 21st century poet.

Image Credit: The Sun [Photo of a couple in a car; the man is sticking his tongue out.]

Tellingly, it was hard for Kate to show me photographs of the couple that weren't already across her social media. This is a generation, after all, whose very lives are played out across Chinese-owned platforms. How sad for these youngsters that their every waking thought is consumed with getting the right snap, nailing the perfect caption. While Kate has received a lot of love from many 1D fans, others have been less kind. Hearing her detail some of the horrible comments made for tough listening.

Image Credit: The Sun [Kate Cassidy and Clemmie Moody in an interview.]

The notion that she was living off him and unambitious is as inaccurate as it is unfair; she was 23 and a recent graduate when she met him. She was still mapping out her future, and then she fell in love with a global pop star. This is the worst period of her life - she shouldn't be dealing with online abuse on top of it. To be crystal clear - she is a girl with her own hopes and dreams, an ambition to be known in her own right. This should be applauded, not questioned.

Image Credit: The Sun [Selfie of Kate Cassidy and Liam Payne in Paris.]

She’s been cruelly called a gold-digger. The reality is she is ambitious and wants to make a name for herself on her own terms. And that is no bad thing. Kate's job should not detract from their passionate love story - for that is what this was. She thought she had her whole life mapped out - the fairytale man, the picturesque life. Forever. How utterly tragic that a man with so much to live for should die so young. That a couple with their whole lives ahead of them should have that ripped away. And that a young woman, so blissfully and naively optimistic, should have such a brutal shattering of her dream.