Pussycat Dolls alum Nicole Scherzinger was allegedly in contact with Liam Payne on the day he died.
Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber â who is working with Scherzinger on the Broadway musical âSunset Blvd.â â addressed her relationship with the late One Direction singer during an interview with Billboard published Thursday.
âI suppose something that hasnât been said, and I suppose I could say, is that of course she mentored Liam, from One Direction,â Webber, 76, said. âOn the Wednesday when he died, she was still texting him that day.â
According to the British musician, Scherzinger, 46, learned the tragic news of Payneâs death shortly before she took the stage to perform in her starring role.
âSheâd just heard that he died,â Webber said. âAnd the fact that she even did the show at all is extraordinary. I mean she is an amazing, amazing woman.
âShe is without any question one of the finest performers Iâve ever worked with.â
Reps for Scherzinger did not immediately respond to Page Sixâs request for comment.
Payne and Scherzingerâs relationship dates back to 2010 when the âDonât Chaâ singer was a judge on âThe X Factor UK.â
At the time, Scherzinger teamed up with fellow judges Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh to connect Payne with his One Direction bandmates, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan.
Behind-the-scenes footage released in 2022 showed Scherzinger encouraging her fellow judges to put together âan imaginary boy groupâ consisting of the five teens rather than eliminating them from the show.
âTheyâre just too talented to get rid of and theyâve got just the right look and the right charisma on stage,â she said at the time. âI think theyâll be really great in a boy band together.â
âTheyâre like little stars,â Scherzinger continued. âYou canât get rid of little stars. You put them all together.â
From there, One Direction was formed. The group went to have incredible success, recording albums and performing together for five years until separating in 2015.
Payne and Scherzinger reportedly filmed the forthcoming Netflix series âBuilding the Bandâ together before he died.
The âTeardropsâ singer acted as a judge and mentor on the unscripted show, which wrapped production in August, Deadline reported earlier this month.
Payne died on Oct. 16 after falling from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was 31.
According to a partial autopsy report, the hitmaker had cocaine, crack and the antidepressant benzodiazepine in his system when he died.
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