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 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.
“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 imaginary boy group” consisting of the five teens rather than eliminating them from the show.
“They’re just too talented to get rid of and they’ve got just the right look and the right charisma on stage,” she said at the time. “I think they’ll be really great in a boy band together.”
“They’re like little stars,” Scherzinger continued. “You can’t get rid of little stars. You put them all together.”
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 “Building the Band” together before he died.
The “Teardrops” 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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