Nicole Scherzinger is undoubtedly the most famous judge on the Australia’s Got Talent panel, but she tells WHO she’s not above taking time out to greet fans in the audience in between auditions at Luna Park in Sydney.
“I don’t take my fans for granted,” she says. “They’re the ones that lift us up and support us.”
Even though Scherzinger made a name for herself as the lead singer in American pop band The Pussycat Dolls, went on to launch a solo singing career, worked alongside Simon Cowell on X Factor UK and dabbled in theatre, the 41-year-old tells WHO she refuses to forget her humble beginnings and always finds the time for fans:
“Anyone who loves me, I’ll love them,” she says. And loved by many she is, but in a candid chat with WHO the Hawaiian- born performer reveals exactly how she’s learned to love herself, inside and out.
WATCH: The choir on AGT that moves Shane, Lucy and Nicole to tears is here
You’ve recently celebrated turning 41 and are looking fiercely fit. What are you doing that’s different now from what you were doing in your early 20s?
I’ve always been quite health conscious and always looked after myself. Obviously as you get a little older, it’s a little longer to bounce back. I love my carbs, I love my sweets so I’m noticing that they kind of love to stick on me and my thighs are a lot larger and heavier as well. [Laughs] One of the biggest differences is I’ve just learned to accept my body as a woman more. Adding a few extra pounds here and there and fluctuating my weight is not a bad thing necessarily. And to embrace it when I’m curvier. I’ve always worked out. I go in cycles of doing it relentlessly every single day. Then if I don’t, I’ll go, “It’s OK.” Sometimes because I travel so much it’s hard to keep that regimen up. But I think everything in balance and moderation.
And what kind of advice would you give to your younger self?
There’s so much I would tell my younger self but [it’s] to give yourself permission to be kinder to yourself. I think we’re so hard on ourselves. I know I was always a perfectionist and really hard on myself and back in the day I used to diet so much more and go to the extreme and I’d be like, “It’s not enough,” then I look back and I’m like, “God, what I would do to look like that.” So really celebrate and embrace where you are now and I don’t diet as much anymore. I try to do more balance and don’t go to extremes because it kind of just strips you of your joy and peace and happiness, you know?
How so?
Self-love doesn’t come easy. It takes work, it takes letting go of a lot of things that we cycle over in our head, but just more kindness and self-love is needed. You know, you don’t have to work out like a fiend like me. Some people are like, “You train like an athlete.” But I do that actually for my mental state. I think it’s just important for people to have more balance. I know some people, like mums of many kids have got really hard lives and a lot to juggle in their lives, but any time they can go for a walk or even [find some] stillness for themselves or do meditation – sleeping and lots of water is really good – those little things, the self-care really makes a difference, I think.
You look like you’re having a great time on set with the women in the show. During your role on X Factor UK there was speculation you and Cheryl Cole didn’t get along. Is that true?
I’m not about hating on other women – it’s definitely not what I’m about. They probably got that because I think in some of her interviews maybe she didn’t speak in the best light about me, but then again that’s a reflection on her, not me. So, I kind of don’t like to waste my energy on that. I don’t really know Cheryl, so I can’t comment.
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