ITV I'm a Celebrity's Tulisa ditched south for new home in Manchester to live 'heal after worst year'

Singer Tulisa Contostavlos has revealed she moved to Manchester during a dramatic upheaval of her life.

The former TV star said she moved to the city 'in the blink of an eye' this year to get a 'better quality of life' following the 'worst year'.

It's one of many huge life changes she discussed in an exclusive interview with The Mirror ahead of her appearance as part of this year's I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here cast. She added she would be hoping to use her time in the jungle 'like therapy' to move on with her life.

"I've moved to a whole new city this year, just like in the blink of an eye," she said. "I was like, right I'm moving to Manchester because I think I'm gonna have a bit of quality of life. I'm gonna be happier up there. And I did it, and then I was like, right, I'm gonna, renovate my whole house. And then I did it."

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The singer and former TV star had a sex tape leaked and was wrongly accused of being a drug dealer. But in her only newspaper interview before going onto the show, Tulisa says she is feeling the most positive she has in a decade and the series is the start of a new chapter and a chance to give her version of events.

She said: "It's been a journey. And there is no choice in coping. You either fight or you fall. And so I've overcome things that, you know, I didn't realise I was capable of overcoming. But there's nothing worse in that jungle than what happened[to me] in 2013.

"I've been breaking free of a lot of things, like my own stigma and what I can do, and what I'm capable of, and I seem to keep impressing myself each time in terms of getting uncomfortable to get great."

She added she had been on a 'healing cycle' for the last 11 years, and that she hopes being in the jungle will confront her fear of being on TV again.

"That's what I'm going for. It's like part of my healing journey, closure to the healing journey, and now, once I come out I am at the stage where I can just start living and it's all gone, it's in the past. There's something freeing about it. I feel like it's going to feel like therapy."

The singer and former X Factor judge, full name Tula Paulinea Contostavlos, rose to fame in the early 2000s as part of the hip-hop trio N-Dubz. But through no fault of her own she then faced highs and a lot of lows, winning a court apology from ex-boyfriend Justin Edwards over a sex tape which appeared on the internet.

She then proved an elaborate sting by disgraced journalist Mazher Mahmood, aka the Fake Sheikh, was without merit when the case against her was thrown out of court. There was even more drama when she won a legal battle in 2018 over the role she played in one of the biggest hits of the past decade, Scream And Shout by Will.I.Am and Britney Spears, which in its original form she wrote and hoped would be a song for her own album.

Tulisa says she is happy to discuss all her past problems in camp and then hopefully will never need to mention some of them again. She said: "I am doing this experience to release the last of the fears. It's like a close or an end of cycles. And to do that, and to go in and be authentic, I need to be very free."

Revealing the one questions she'll have for her campmates, Tulisa said: "I definitely have a sense of if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it to the fullest, as in, I'm going to go in there and say, 'This is me. This is the nonsense[in her past]. What do you want to know?' And I'll happily answer any questions' because the best result is, I come out the other side. Whether people like me or not is irrelevant, but at least they will know, oh, this is who she really is. So opinions will be based on truth rather than nonsense."

At 36, Tulisa showed off her amazing fitness in her official jungle pic which displayed her admirable abs. But her love of the gym in part could have cancelled her jungle trip in 2024 as she had more bad luck and needed a double hernia operation earlier this year. She said: "I've got a personal trainer called Jess, and she does a lot of, like, weight lifting and muscle building with me, mixed with like, core strength and cardio.

"I've also been training at a great facility. It's called UBX, and it basically focuses on, like, intense fitness circuits combined with boxing. So you're doing like 12 different rounds of exercising, and in between that, you're on the pad, smashing out the pads, and then some of the exercising incorporates boxing. So just overall, general fitness.

"And I also do my yoga, my Tibetan rites every day as well. So there's been a lot of training, but I've had a lot of catching up to do because I had a double hernia operation, in around it was like July or August. I basically just made the time frame to be able to start training. I had two months before I went into the jungle to try and get back in shape, because I've been out for nine months, I was advised, like, you can't train with that hernia. without herding her. But I just managed to get the operation done and then start again."

She is only taking in black swimwear and says she finds the idea of the jungle shower "cringy" and there won't be "no hip swivels" in there when she is washing. Despite spending more time out of the spotlight and alone these days she aims to be a buzzy presence in camp, except when she is meditating or doing yoga.

She said: "I don't think I'll be quiet when I'm in there, because when I'm on, I'm on. In terms of, like, when there are people there, I'm not going to sit and be a misery guard. And when I'm socialising, I socialise to the fullest. So I would come across as like a total extrovert.

It's just when I have the choice, and I'm at home, for instance, I want to spend a small amount of my time socialising, and the rest I'll spend on my own, but there is no choice in there. And when I do socialise, I socialise to the fullest, but I might need moments where I need to go off and have quiet time. But everyone from, you know what I'm guessing from leaks and stuff, who's going in there seems like really cool people.

"So I'm hoping that it's not going to be a situation where everyone's doing each other's nut in, you know, I mean, and everyone will be understanding. So I'm like, Listen, I'm going to go meditate under the tree. Meditate under the tree for 10 minutes, bear with me go and I'll be sweet with that."