Nicole Scherzinger has shared the heartbreaking final text conversation she had with Liam Payne on the day of his death.
The One Direction star died at the age of 31 on 16 October after falling from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires.
Pussycat Dolls star Nicole, 47, took Liam under her wing after serving as One Direction’s celebrity judge on the X Factor when they were formed on the competition in 2010.
Nicole has now discussed her last exchange with Liam after learning of his death before taking to the stage for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard.
‘I’d known he was in Argentina. It was just chit-chat and pretty light,’ she told The Times.
‘I just adored Liam. He had such a good heart. I barely knew him when I put One Direction together. I just saw these talented boys and was like: “I’m coming out of a girl group – I know the power of a group,”‘ she added.
She also reflected on what drove her to go on with her performance the day Liam died.
‘The show must go on. From then on, I dedicated a little part of the show to Liam every night. Just a little moment that always made me think of him,’ she said.
When she was asked if Liam’s death made her contemplate life in the spotlight, Nicole added: ‘We need more compassion in the world. Our phones are our enemies as much as they help us. I wish we’d cancel cancel culture.’
Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber previously revealed Nicole had been texting Liam the day he died, sharing his praise for her for continuing with her performance.
‘I suppose something that hasn’t been said, and I suppose I could say, is that of course she mentored Liam, from One Direction. On the Wednesday when he died, she was still texting him that day,’ he said.
‘She’d just heard that he died, and the fact that she even did the show at all is extraordinary,’ said the six-time Tony winner.
‘I mean, she is an amazing, amazing woman. She is without any question one of the finest performers I’ve ever worked with.’
A post-mortem examination determined Liam’s cause of death as ‘multiple trauma’ and ‘internal and external haemorrhage’, as a result of the fall from the hotel balcony.
His funeral was held last November in Buckinghamshire, with his former bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik among the mourners, alongside his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and former partner Cheryl, with whom he shares son Bear.
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