Whenever it was time for The X Factor bosses to renegotiate judges’ contracts, it was always Nicole Scherzinger’s that would give them the biggest headache.
The former Pussycat Doll, then a huge US star with a string of sell-out world tours, was meticulous about making sure the terms and, of course, the price, were exactly right, recalls a source close to the show.
There were demands that she never appear on the judging panel alongside ex-Girls Aloud star Cheryl Cole, spats with fellow judge Sharon Osbourne and even a requirement that she was only filmed from her left side so that her ‘good’ side faced the audience.
Sources say she certainly ‘knew her worth’ – after all, she was immensely popular with the long-running ITV show’s viewers, and therefore crucial for ratings. But another way of putting it, they add, is that she was a ‘massive diva’.
‘She was expensive and the terms always had to be meticulously right,’ the source tells me. ‘If you thought Sharon or even Louis Walsh were diva-ish, you’d seen nothing until you’d seen Nicole.
‘She would demand that her money was massively upped year on year, while the others much more quietly would get what they were given.
‘At times she was earning almost as much as Simon Cowell.’
Of the singer’s insistence that her ‘good’ side face the audience, the source adds: ‘The X Factor team were used to stars throwing their weight around and demanding to be seen in the best light, but this was a bit ridiculous. You can only imagine what Louis made of that.’
‘Nicole Scherzinger was expensive and the terms always had to be meticulously right,’ Katie Hind’s source tells her
Nicole is rumoured to have been earning as much as Simon Cowell when she was a judge on The X Factor
And, today, it appears her behaviour is little changed.
At the Royal Albert Hall earlier this month, where she was to perform a one-woman show, An Evening With Nicole Scherzinger, she turned up 50 minutes late for a performance which, ultimately, left fans fuming.
The official reason given for her tardiness was ‘due to unforeseen circumstances’, but the Daily Mail reported that Nicole, now 47, was held up while posing for selfies with admirers who had each paid £550 for the privilege.
A disgruntled fan said she showed the audience ‘zero respect’.
Complaints have also stacked up at the production company behind Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Sunset Boulevard in the West End, in which she played bitter former silent film star Norma Desmond. It was career-defining for Nicole, winning her an Olivier award last year before it transferred to Broadway. But on the night of its New York premiere, she emailed her agent, Ben Coleman, who had helped win her the role, to fire him.
Backstage drama notwithstanding, she duly won a Tony award for best actress.
The musical’s co-producer had planned to lay on a celebratory dinner in New York, extending the invitation to Nicole’s co-stars. But sources claim she insisted her fellow performers be excluded, and called off the dinner.
On top of her reported $150,000 (£111,000) a week salary, she then accepted paid endorsements from beauty brands Revlon and Clairol on the morning of the awards.
The source claims Nicole used the Sunset Boulevard name and image to secure the endorsements but donated none of the profits back to the production, which was ‘bleeding money’ at the time.
These are only the most recent examples, but I experienced a little of her behaviour myself in 2011, when she was establishing herself as a solo artist.
The former Pussycat Doll performing at the Royal Albert Hall in London earlier this month
‘The mask slipped when I dared to write about Nicole’s well-publicised on-and-off relationship with Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton,’ recalls Katie Hind
Her publicist invited me to watch her perform an intimate gig at Soho haunt Madame Jojo’s.
We were kept waiting for quite some time before she emerged on stage. But she was charm personified when I was introduced to her afterwards in front of her PR.
That mask slipped two years later when I dared to write about her well-publicised on-off relationship with Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton. I had been tipped off that the couple had reunited after a break and Nicole had joined Lewis’s dad Anthony to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Only, when I approached her PR team for comment, Nicole swore blind it wasn’t true. I knew it was, but she didn’t think I had the right to report on the romance.
Once photographs emerged of the dinner, proving she was there, she was forced by her team to come clean and apologise to me – something she hated doing.
Those who knew her said simply that ‘it had to be her own way’.
Born in Hawaii and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Nicole began her career in a girl band called Eden’s Crush. But she hit the big time in 2003 when she became lead singer of Pussycat Dolls.
It was after she made the transition to become a solo singer that she became an X Factor judge.
Nicole with her boyfriend, former rugby player Thom Evans
Those who knew her simply said that ‘it had to be her own way’
But this also exposed her diva side. Her refusal to appear on the UK panel with Cheryl (as a source quipped: ‘She didn’t like that idea at all’) may stem from Simon Cowell’s decision to swap Nicole on to the US version of the show when viewers struggled to understand Cheryl’s Geordie accent.
Nicole had a ‘jealous spat’ with Sharon Osbourne in 2017, when Sharon was given the girls’ category to mentor. And when the live shows came round, Nicole stormed out after the band she was mentoring were eliminated.
‘When it didn’t go her way, she flounced out,’ my insider says, although her PR team were at pains to remind everyone that she returned to continue the show.
Even the respect she earned for her transition from Pussycat Doll to stage star was rocky.
She enraged Andrew Lloyd Webber when she pulled out of his Broadway musical Cats because The X Factor came calling.
A source tells me: ‘Nicole and Andrew made up after several years but her decision to pull out was about her being a diva.’
Today, Nicole is dating Thom Evans, a former England rugby star, and she still gets cross when anything she doesn’t like is written about their relationship.
It is all in keeping with what my source describes as ‘an uptight American songstress who behaves like a typical Hollywood star’.
