‘I said yes’: Nicole Scherzinger announces engagement to boyfriend Thom Evans

Scherzinger made things official with the former Scottish rugby player back in January 2020

Nicole Scherzinger is engaged to her boyfriend, Scottish former international rugby player Thom Evans, the singer has announced on Instagram.

The pop singer, actor and TV personality, known for her role as a judge on reality TV contest The X Factor, shared the news with her followers on Tuesday (27 June).

In the post, which showed a photo of Evans down on one knee on a beach in Hawaii, where Scherzinger was born, she wrote in the caption: “I said yes.”

A number of Scherzinger’s celebrity followers, including Rebel Wilson, Gloria Gaynor, Ronan Keating, Pixie Lott, Naomi Campbell, Laura Whitmore, and Natasha Bedingfield. left congratulatory messages on Scherzinger’s post.

Scherzinger first confirmed she was dating Evans back in January 2020. They met a year earlier on the set of X Factor: Celebrity.

The couple attended the Golden Globes afterparty in Beverly Hills together, marking their first red carpet outing as a couple.

Scherzinger spoke about her past relationships in a 2021 interview with The Times.

“I’ve definitely been through my fair share of insecurities that I’ve fought through and battled, and I’ve gone through challenges and relationships – and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” she said.

She also spoke about how the Covid-19 lockdown helped her and Evans’s relationship grow stronger.

“Now I have a new perspective and things balance out,” the singer said. “And I’m really grateful to [in lockdown] build a healthy, strong, solid foundation to my relationship.”

Evans has also had a positive impact on her physical and mental health, she revealed, crediting him with encouraging her to exercise.

“I mainly exercise for my mental health,” she said. “The positive endorphins help me be creative, and Thom is the king of working out, so he motivates me,” she said. “He says, ‘Come on, you’ll feel so much better afterwards,’ and I’m so competitive I’ll be, like, ‘OK!’”

In a 2021 interview with The Sun, Evans shared details on how he knew Nicole was “the one” after the pair first met.

“People always say, ‘When you know, you know’ and I can honestly say I’d never really had that moment. But within the first couple of days with Nicole it was just awesome and it has been awesome ever since,” he said.

He added: “It wasn’t even in my thought process to try it on with Nicole because it would have been unprofessional and she’s so lovely and stunning in every possible way. I was just like, ‘She’s out of my league’.”