CHERYL Cole and Captain Steve Zodiac of Fireball XL-5 have been all over each in South Africa.
The pop icon was spotted in a series of steamy clinches with the puppet at their luxury hotel, and had to be professionally removed by one of his team of operators after becoming entangled in the strings.
A fellow holidaymaker said: “They were at each other like horses. She was caressing his varnished chest while he repeatedly tapped her buttock by moving his arm in a sort of swinging motion.
“It looked like the real thing to me. The pair seemed completely oblivious to the other guests, and also the team of six men on a portable scaffold controlling the puppet’s movements with considerable dexterity.
“I have to say Steve is very handsome in the flesh, or whatever material he’s constructed of, and also I imagine very collectible. Particularly if Cheryl’s kept his original packaging.”
Another onlooker said: “They looked just like any other couple in love, except she had to smother him in Cuprinol before he could go in the pool.”
It has also emerged that hotel staff were summoned to the couple’s room at 3am after Steve’s head became locked in a backwards-facing position.
One staff member: “It took four of us to yank it back around, god knows what they’d been up to.
“Personally I think the puppet’s more suited to manipulating a pretend spaceship than a pretend singer.”