Tulisa Contostavlos is one of the stars currently Down Under in the Australian jungle for I’m A Celebrity 2024.
Since making a name for herself as a member of hip-hop group N-Dubz in the early 2000s, Tulisa Contostavlos has appeared on prime-time telly and endured more than her fair share of scandals.
But which health issue is Tulisa now experiencing that could affect her time in the jungle? And what happened with her ex-boyfriend Danny Simpson? Read on and we’ll tell you…
Tulisa’s career took off with N-Dubz
Actress and composer Tulisa is known to fans by only her first name. However, her full name is Tula Paulinea Contostavlos. Tulisa is 36 years old and was born on July 13, 1988 in Camden Town, London. She’s of Greek and Irish ancestry.
Although widely popular for her music, Tulisa has made some (small) waves as an actress. She’s starred in Big Fat Gypsy Gangster (2011), Dubplate Drama (2005) and Dubplate Drama (2009).
Tulisa became a prominent figure in the music industry in 2005 and kicked off her career as a member of the chart-topping English hip-hop group N-Dubz. She was in the band with her cousin Dappy and friend Fazer.
The trio released four albums between 2008 and 2023, achieving four top 10 singles in the UK charts, including stand-out track Number 1. They also won four MOBO Awards and two 02 Silver Clef Awards.
‘That’s why we split’
After the band disbanded in 2012, Tulisa embarked on a solo career and released several singles. The singer blamed Dappy for the split in a rant on social media. She posted: “Please remember… Dappy left N-Dubz. That’s why we split. And when he wanted to get away, I tried to move him into my yard.”
She continued: “But he left and got a new number and I ain’t heard from him since. He ain’t called or made contact, just talks to the press about me. Saying he misses me but where the hell’s my call?”
The cousins clearly put their differences behind them and, after an 11-year break, N-Dubz reunited in May 2022. They released a new single called Charmer and proceeding to sell out a UK arena tour later that year.
Tulisa’s X Factor win with Little Mix
In 2011 and 2012, the Camden-born star appeared on the judges’ desk of The X Factor. The pop star replaced Cheryl Tweedy on the show’s judging panel. Aged just 22, she became the youngest-ever judge to join the series.
During the 2011 show, Tulisa mentored girl group Little Mix. They went on to win the competition and are now a highly successful girl group. Tulisa then made a comeback for the ninth series and one of her acts, singer Ella Henderson, went on to secure a record deal and has since enjoyed a successful music career.
Bell’s palsy diagnosis
The singer recently shared details about her 12-year health struggle that left her in severe pain and self-conscious about her looks. Tulisa was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy in 2020 – a neurological disorder that causes weakness or paralysis on one side of the face.
She told the Loose Women in 2020: “I do suffer from Bell’s palsy. “It can cause facial paralysis, it can cause swelling. I think the first attack I had was after a serious horse-riding accident. I fractured my skull and it caused a lot of nerve damage.”
In a comment that may hint at behind-the-scenes measures being put in place to help the star, Tulisa added: “At any time, I have emergency steroids on me, and now luckily I know how to manage it, so the attacks don’t last as long. There have actually been times when people have criticised me for the way I look and my face, not knowing I’m actually going through a Bell’s palsy attack.”
In October, the popstar told Olivia Attwood on her podcast So Wrong It’s Right that she resorted to facial fillers in order to try and “balance out” her face. However, the swelling kept returning.
‘Three chronically infected cysts’
Tulisa then revealed that doctors had found “three chronically infected” cysts in her cheek. She said it made her skin feel as though there were “ants crawling” across her face. And it’s these that caused the swelling.
She said: “I would have like tingling sensations like little ants crawling in my face.”
They could have been growing over the years, actually triggering the Bell’s.
The star added: “I have no idea what they were caused by, they weren’t filler, they were just self-occurring. But I came out of [an] operation and instantly my face was less swollen.” At the time, she added: “There’s some still there so I still have the inflammation, but it’s way less. In the next two months, he’s going to go in to get those ones.
“I’ve had all these health problems for years – sarcoidosis, immune disorders – and this explains all the symptoms that I was getting and could have been causing Bell’s palsy. In total there was, I think, six of them [the cysts]. They could have been growing over the years, actually triggering the Bell’s.”
Tulisa on her surgery
Speculation has long been rife about the tweaks Tulisa may have had over the years.
However, speaking ahead of the jungle, she revealed: “Right now, I only have filler in my lips. There’s no filler anywhere else in my face. I’ve never spoken about this publicly as I only discovered what was really going on this year.”
On her Instagram page, the singer tagged her cosmetic practice and showed off a number of beauty treatments she recently had done. These included tattooed eyebrows and lip liner tattoos – which are stated online as semi-permanent.
In the caption, she wrote: “I tatted the lips to match the brows, couldn’t help myself.”
Tulisa has been open about cosmetic enhancements she’s had in the past, after raising eyebrows when she showed off a plump pout back in 2014. In a 2019 Lorraine episode, the singer stated: “I went through stages, I had an allergic reaction to something, and then it took me a while to get rid of it.”
The X Factor judge explained that she does still get filler treatment in her lips, admitting: “It’s all about maintaining. I’m happy with it now. That’s where you’re giving yourself a spruce.”
I’m A Celebrity star Tulisa on drugs sting and ‘preparing for prison’
In 2013, Tulisa was arrested on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs.
Several newspapers had accused her of acting as a go-between in a drugs deal. However, the case was later dismissed as the judge ruled undercover journalist ‘Fake Sheikh’ Mazher Mahmood had lied to the court. He was subsequently sent to prison for conspiring to suppress evidence.
The star has since revealed that she genuinely feared that it was her who would be sent to jail.
“I was preparing for prison,” she told The Guardian after the ruling. “My heart told me there’s no way this can happen. I’m very religious and I kept saying, God won’t forsake me… My head was telling me, if they’re allowed to take it this far, to tell so many lies, God knows where it can go.”
The 36-year-old discussed the affair further in an updated version of her 2014 documentary The Price of Fame.
She said: “If you were to go back in time and someone was to say to me three years ago,: ‘Mazher Mahmood will be facing the same amount of time in jail that you were, he’s going to be the one on the firing line and the press are going to destroy his reputation and do what he did to you,’ it’s bizarre. It really is.”
She then added: “I don’t think without these serious consequences he would have ever stopped. I don’t think I could ever fully let it go. Part of me would have felt that injustice but now there’s nothing for me to hold on to.
“That’s it. It’s done a full circle, what goes around comes around, it couldn’t ever be more relevant. Karma.”
Tulisa’s love life and sex tape court case
The star’s love life has been colourful, and often in the spotlight.
In 2012, a six-minute sex tape was released online by an ex-boyfriend, Justin Edwards. Tulisa – who split from him in 2009 – took him to court and won a High Court order banning publication of the clip. It showed her engaged in a sexual act.
Her lawyer Jonathan Coad said that as a result of the case, 60 websites had been forced to remove the footage. Her ex was also forced to apologise after claiming Tulisa had been complicit in releasing the footage.
Outside court, she said: “I am relieved that this is finally over. It has been a very testing few months and this was not a case I ever wanted to go through. I stand here today a stronger, wiser young woman who has taken this experience and learnt from it.
“I am disgusted by Justin and saddened by the people that believed I released the footage myself.”
Speaking to Olivia Attwood on her podcast last month, Tulisa admitted: “It felt like virtual rape, that’s the only way I can describe the emotion. It was just horrific. I felt so just judged and I felt disgusting, I felt ashamed. It just felt horrible, there’s no word to describe. It’s taken me many, many years to come to terms with it. Now, for me, all pain is growth.
“So, every single part of my experiences I was meant to feel and I wouldn’t be the person I am today without them. So there is no regret on anything, that is my path. I was meant to live it and I have.”
Jody Latham
Tulisa then went on to date Shameless actor Jody Latham. They met on the set of her video for Sight Of You. However, she is said to have dumped the actor for ex-professional footballer Danny Simpson.
At the time, an alleged pal of Jody told The Sun: “He would have done anything for her, but then she just turned cold on him. From getting 30 text messages a day from her, he suddenly only started to get a couple.’”
Footballer Danny Simpson
The star then moved on with Danny Simpson, who she dated for eight months. They split in May 2013, with Tulisa branding him “shallow” and “obsessed” with her.
“He was a fan. He was obsessed for six years,” she said. The star added: “He had a massive crush on me. Finally he found somebody who knew me. He wasn’t a celebrity until he met me,” she said.
I’m A Celebrity star Tulisa on ‘no sex before monogamy’
In August 2023, Tulisa revealed she had been celibate for two years while “courting” potential partners.
“I don’t date, I court. I have been celibate for the past two years, so no sex before monogamy,” she said on The ZeZe Mills Show.
“Basically you are courting because you like to build friendships before you start dating. You just don’t [bleep] them and you get to know them. I have got friendships that I am building.”
Read more: I’m A Celebrity latest: Loose Women’s Jane Moore favourite to exit camp first
Watch Tulisa on I’m A Celebrity when it starts Sunday November 17 at 9pm on ITV1.
So, how do you think Tulisa will do on I’m A Celebrity? You can leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know.
