Naomi Campbell reacts to Liam Payne’s death after a short relationship

Naomi Campbell has responded to the tragic death of Liam Payne, five years after they were rumored to have briefly dated.

The supermodel took to Instagram on Friday to comment on her friend Nicole Scherzinger’s post, paying tribute to the former One Direction member.

“🕊️💔🕊️🙏🏾,” Campbell, 54, simply commented beneath photos of Pussycat Dolls frontwoman Payne and their fellow “Building the Band” judge Kelly Rowland.

The fashion icon and the “Strip That Down” singer, who had a 23-year age difference, reportedly dated for four months in 2019.

They first sparked romance rumors in January after leaving flirty comments on each other’s Instagram posts.

“Perfection in a person… don’t give me those eyes,” Payne wrote to Campbell at the time.

She then called him a “Beautiful Soul ❤️,” to which he cheekily replied, “It takes one to know one 😘.”

The British catwalker, who was 48 at the time, and the English crooner, who was 25, appeared at Nigerian artist Davido’s concert in London later that month.

They hung out again in February 2019 at a restaurant in Ghana and later at private London club Annabel’s.

However, the pair’s whirlwind romance came to a halt in April, when a source told the Sun that Campbell had made the decision to ‘let things go’.

Both stars were questioned several times about their rumored relationship, but they remained tight-lipped.

Andy Cohen asked Payne to “confirm or deny” the romance during an episode of “Watch What Happens Live” in December 2019, at which point the “Teardrops” singer decided to “please the fifth.”

While it’s unclear whether Campbell and Payne stayed in touch after their brief fling, he remained close with their mutual friend Scherzinger, 46, and even texted the “Sunset Boulevard” star the day he died.

Scherzinger, who formed One Direction with Simon Cowell in 2010 as a judge on “The X Factor,” mourned Payne’s death in her emotional Instagram post on Friday.

“I will forever cherish and cherish the time we shared together, from fifteen years ago when One Direction was born, to just a few weeks ago,” she wrote in part.

The “Don’t Cha” singer added that the late pop star “brought so much joy, light and laughter into the lives of those” who knew him.

Payne died on October 16 after falling from three floors from the balcony of his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was 31.

The former boybander – who had previously been open about his struggles with substance abuse and mental health – had cocaine, crack, benzodiazepine and a drug cocktail known as “pink cocaine” in his system at the time of his death, his autopsy showed. report.

Several of Payne’s family members and close friends, including his former One Direction bandmates, have released statements mourning the loss.

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