Overview

• Scherzinger told The Times their final exchange was “just chit-chat” and “pretty light” while Payne was in Argentina.
• She learned of his death shortly before a Sunset Boulevard performance and thereafter dedicated a brief nightly moment to him, a response praised by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.
• Payne, 31, died in October 2024 after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, according to prior reports.
• Subsequent reporting cited toxicology findings identifying alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system after the fall.
• Scherzinger helped form One Direction in 2010 and later reunited with Payne on Netflix’s Building the Band, which premiered in July with a dedication to him.