The former international sport star, who is engaged to Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger, was forced to retire at the age of 24 after suffering a life-threatening injury
Former Scotland rugby star Thom Evans is set to marry Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger after she famously dated F1 icon Lewis Hamilton.
The former Glasgow Warriors flyer popped the question in 2023, but the pair have not yet tied the knot. Scherzinger had a busy summer of working on stage for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical ‘Sunset Boulevard’ on Broadway and told American radio when she expects the couple to finally get married.
“Yes, we will get married. We’re engaged to be married when I’m not working. Thank God he is so patient,” she said. Ex-London Wasps man Evans asked the question while the pair were on holiday in Portugal, with Scherzinger understandably in awe as Evans got down on one knee in the pictures posted to social media.
The pair met on Celebrity X-Factor in 2019 and went public with their romance in January 2020. Evans has been incredibly supportive of his fiance’s career, with one post to Instagram after a show in 2023 epitomising this.
“Just wow!” wrote Evans. “I saw @sunsetblvdmusical last night and I was completely blown away.
“@nicolescherzinger your performance was truly MESMERISING and the rest of the cast are so TALENTED! I’ve never seen anything like it before and if you haven’t yet booked tickets then you absolutely need to!”
Prior to Evans, Scherzinger previously dated Formula One legend Hamilton. The pair had an on-off relationship for eight years between 2007 and 2015 before calling it a day.
Hamilton later cited busy schedules as one of the main reasons for their separation.
As a player, Evans turned out for Scotland, Wasps and Warriors. He had been playing for the latter for four years when he suffered a career-ending neck injury against Wales in the Six Nations.
According to The Scotsman, following his operations, it was revealed that he was one millimetre from paralysis or death.
Speaking to Men’s Health last year, he said: “I sustained a double fracture-dislocation to the C5 and C7 regions of my spine in 2010.
“I was playing for Scotland against Wales in the Six Nations and I was really fortunate because an injury of that magnitude, suffered on such a big stage, meant I had the very best personnel there to deal with it.”
Touching on being forced to retire, he added: “At the time, I was just so grateful not to be in a wheelchair,” he told the publication.
“But a year or so after the injury, it really hit me that I was never going to play the game again — a game that I so dearly loved, and a game I’d worked my whole life for. I did struggle for a long time.
“I was only 24 at the time of my injury and I’d just broken into the Scotland national team. I think I would have comfortably had that jersey for at least another 10 years,” he continued.
“I just tried my best to remain focused on how incredibly lucky I was to even be walking and moving in a ‘normal’ capacity. That’s what helped me through the dark times.
Following this huge career turning point, he began working as a broadcaster for ITV’s rugby coverage and eventually appeared in popular TV shows ‘Strictly Come Dancing‘ and ‘Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls’ in the years after.
In 2019, he formed a singing trio with fellow ex-rugby stars Levi Davies and Ben Foden on Celebrity X-Factor, where he met Scherzinger.