Nicole Scherzinger has made some pretty bold claims in her latest magazine interview, AND treated us to some pretty bold pictures too.

The X Factor judge told the latest issue of cool fashion and music magazine Notion that she was originally offered what went on to become Fergie's place in the Black Eyed Peas, saying that she had to turn it down because she was contracted elsewhere - well, this is news!

We're sure new mum-to-be Fergie is too busy cooing over how small baby clothes are and fighting the urge to chuck up of a morning to care, but still - what might have been.

And the Pussycat Doll didn't stop there, also claiming that she also turned down Rihanna's Calvin Harris hit song We Found Love before the Bajan beauty recorded it.

(Image: Notion Magazine / Mark Cant)

"I passed on We Found Love," she said.

"I got the demo of that song and I was busy at the time. They’d sent me a few dance tracks and I wasn’t able to get to them and I was like, 'Oh, there’s so much dance and I want to take a break from it.' That was my fault. I slept on it."

Nicole posed for some pretty darn fierce pictures to accompany the interview, donning a spot of leather and pulling her hair into the highest, most glamorous Croydon facelift we've ever seen for the sexy black and white shoot.

(Image: Notion Magazine / Mark Cant)

But whilst Nic may be a glamour puss now, back when she was starting out things were a little different, with the singer admitting that if she'd been a Spice Girl, she would have been "Goth Spice".

Reflecting on her audition for TV show Popstars, she said: "I was so theatre at the time. I was like "I am not going to be a Spice Girl". That is just not me.

"I mean I'm a Spice Girls fan now, but at the time I only wore black and I was goth. I would have been Goth Spice. Ethnic Chanting Spice, that's who I thought I was."

(Image: Notion Magazine)

Read the full interview with Nicole Scherzinger in the new issue of Notion, out now. And, just for fun, let's remind ourselves of the audition Nicole's talking about above, shall we?