Pussycat Dolls alum Nicole Scherzinger was allegedly in contact with Liam Payne on the day he died. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber — who is working with Scherzinger on the Broadway musical Sunset Blvd. — addressed her relationship with the late One Direction singer during an interview with Billboard published on Thursday.
“I suppose something that hasn’t been said, and I suppose I could say, is that of course she mentored Liam, from One Direction,” Webber, 76, said. “On the Wednesday when he died, she was still texting him that day.” According to the British musician, Scherzinger, 46, learned the tragic news of Payne’s death shortly before she took the stage to perform in her starring role, reports Page Six.
“She’d just heard that he died,” Webber said. “And the fact that she even did the show at all is extraordinary. I mean she is an amazing, amazing woman.
“She is without any question one of the finest performers I’ve ever worked with.” Reps for Scherzinger did not immediately respond to Page Six ’s request for comment. Payne and Scherzinger’s relationship dates back to 2010 when the Don’t Cha singer was a judge on The X Factor UK.
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 “an imagina.
