Nicole Scherzinger is paying tribute to Liam Payne with a poignant look back at their shared history in the entertainment industry.
On Friday, the former Pussycat Dolls member shared a pair of playful selfies on Instagram showing her and Payne ― who died last week at age 31 ― posing with fellow pop singer Kelly Rowland in what appeared to be a dressing room.
Her accompanying caption was written as an open letter to the former One Direction member in which she recalled “the time we shared together,” including “just a few weeks ago.”
“It was such a blessing to get to work with you recently,” Scherzinger wrote. “We shared the same love and passion for music and I will forever remember the meaningful and joyful conversations we had.”
“It’s been so hard to process that you’re no longer here, but I am grateful to have known your kind heart, sweet soul and character,” she continued.“You brought so much joy, light, and laughter to the lives of those that truly knew you.”
Before extending her condolences to Payne’s family, she added: “I will ‘miss you’ my friend and carry you in my heart.”
Payne was found dead on Oct. 16 after falling from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A preliminary autopsy report found that the pop star had died from multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding.
As fans may recall, Scherzinger is credited alongside record executive and TV personality Simon Cowell with the formation of One Direction in 2010. At the time, Payne was auditioning for the British competition series “The X Factor.”
When Payne failed to make the cut as a solo artist, he teamed up with fellow contestants Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson ― reportedly at the suggestion of Cowell and Scherzinger, a guest judge ― to compete on the show as a group, which later became One Direction.
These days, Scherzinger is winning raves for her performance in the Broadway revival of “Sunset Boulevard.” The musical’s composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber, told Billboard in an interview published Thursday that Scherzinger “was still texting” Payne on the day of his death.
“On the Wednesday when he died, she was still texting him that day, and [that evening] the reviewers came in [to ‘Sunset’], she’d just heard that he died,” Lloyd Webber recalled. “And the fact that she even did the show at all is extraordinary. I mean she is an amazing, amazing woman.”
Appearing on “Good Morning America” Friday, Scherzinger confirmed that she and Payne filmed a Netflix competition series, “Building the Band,” earlier this year. The status of that project is unclear, although Deadline reported last week that Netflix “will likely wish to move forward sensitively” with the show’s release following Payne’s death.
