Sparks flew between Nicole Scherzinger and Thom Evans the moment they first laid eyes on each other in late 2019.
The couple met on the set of The X Factor: Celebrity, which the Pussycat Dolls frontwoman judged alongside Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh. The former rugby player competed on the star-studded spinoff of the U.K. singing competition with fellow athletes Ben Foden and Levi Davis. Their boy band, Try Star, ultimately finished in fifth place.
Scherzinger and Evans began to flirt as the season went on, and she memorably went wild after he stripped off his shirt and was drenched with rain during a performance of X Ambassadors’ “Boom.”
After the finale of The X Factor: Celebrity aired in November 2019, the “Don’t Cha” singer and the model were spotted hanging out and kissing at a bar in London. They made their red carpet debut in January 2020 at the 21st annual InStyle and Warner Bros. Pictures Golden Globe Awards afterparty.
“I’m very happy,” Scherzinger gushed to Extra days later. “I couldn’t be happier right now, and I’m really grateful.”
As the pair’s romance continued to heat up, they started sharing photos together via Instagram, keeping fans in the loop on their daily activities in quarantine amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Nicole and Thom got very serious very quickly,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly in August 2020. “They are infatuated with each other and complement one another well. They’re super cute and have a blast together. Nicole feels very lucky to have found Thom.”
Scherzinger and Evans signaled that they were ready to take the next step in their relationship in November 2020 when they were spotted house-hunting in Los Angeles just days before celebrating their one-year anniversary.
“He’s my man, the man in my life, the man of my dreams,” she told Extra the following week.
The Masked Singer judge previously dated race car driver Lewis Hamilton on and off from 2007 to 2015 and professional tennis player Grigor Dimitrov from 2016 to 2019. The Zimbabwe native, for his part, was in a relationship with model and actress Kelly Brook from 2010 to 2013.
Scroll down for a timeline of Scherzinger and Evans’ romance!