Nicole Scherzinger spoke with Liam Payne hours before his tragic death at 31.

“I’d known he was in Argentina,” Scherzinger, 47, told The Times of London in a profile published on Friday, October 3. “It was just chit-chat and pretty light.”

Payne, best known as one of the members of British boy band One Direction, suffered a fatal fall from a hotel balcony in October 2024. (Payne is survived by his parents, his sisters and his 8-year-old son with ex Cheryl Cole.)

Scherzinger initially met Payne in 2010, when she watched his The X Factor UK audition and helped put One Direction together as a band. They later bonded as mentors on Netflix’s Building the Band competition, which aired earlier this year.

Nicole Scherzinger Was Texting Liam Payne on Day of His Death

“I just adored Liam. He ha

See Full Page