Pussycat Dolls star Nicole Scherzinger was reportedly in contact with Liam Payne on the day he died in Buenos Aires.
A post-mortem examination report said the former One Direction member died of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage” after falling from a third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentine capital.
His body was found in the hotel’s internal courtyard.
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In an interview with Billboard published on Thursday, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber – who is working with Scherzinger, 46, on the musical Sunset Blvd. – said she had learned of Payne’s death shortly before she took the stage.
“I suppose something that hasn’t been said, and I suppose I could say, is that of course, she mentored Liam,” he said.
“On the Wednesday when he died, she was still texting him that day, and (that evening) the reviewers came in, she’d just heard that he died. 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.”
Payne and Scherzinger’s relationship dates back years to when she was a judge on The X Factor UK and played an important role in putting together “an imaginary boy group” with Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh.
From there, One Direction was formed.
Initial investigations suggest Payne was alone and experiencing a “breakdown” due to consumption of substances that have not yet been determined.
Following his death, police found substances in his hotel room, as well as several destroyed objects and furniture, according to the public prosecutors’ office.
The British boy band star had cocaine in his system, according to a preliminary toxicology report published by local press and confirmed to the AP by a source familiar. Definitive results aren’t expected to be made public for several weeks.
The Casa Sur hotel has become a place for Payne’s fans to pay their respects. They have left flowers, candles and photos of the singer in a makeshift shrine around a tree at the hotel’s entrance.
The singer’s father, Geoff Payne, is in Buenos Aires arranging the repatriation of his son’s body.
Payne’s family, which includes his mother Karen Payne and his two sisters Ruth and Nicola, have expressed their devastation over the loss, as have his former bandmates. Artists and celebrities from various countries continue to share their grief.
One Direction was among the most successful boy bands of recent times. It announced an indefinite hiatus in 2016 and Payne – like his former bandmates Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson – pursued a solo career.
The singer had travelled to Argentina to attend Horan’s concert in Buenos Aires on October 2.
He shared videos of himself dancing with his girlfriend, American influencer Kate Cassidy, and singing along in the stands. Cassidy had left Argentina after the show, but Payne stayed behind.
– with AP