Tulisa to face demons on I'm a Celebrity after 'worst year of her life' and will ask stars one thing

The Mirror's Mark Jefferies is currently Down Under as ITV's I'm A Celebrity gears up for a grand return to screens

Singer Tulisa Contostavlos says she is finally over the pain and drama of her younger time in the spotlight and will use the jungle experience "like therapy" to move forward in life.

The singer and former TV star had a sex tape leaked and was wrongly accused of being a drug dealer. Both of these things overshadowed her career for many years, but now the singer dubbed The Female boss is back and set to rise again with the prospect of returning home from I'm A Celebrity with a crown.

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.

"I've moved to a whole new city this year, just like in the blink of an eye. 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.

"And I've just been making big changes, getting toxic energies and, you know, anything negative out my life. Getting in structured, positive routines, doing things that are hard, like training twice a day, for instance, but that makes me feel amazing. And with all of that, every time I think, this is going to be hard, I do it, and I'm like, No, I've done it, I can do it. And I just keep doing it.

"Then I just got to the point. Well, this is the most uncomfortable situation I could possibly put myself in. And I feel like I've been on this kind of healing cycle for the past 11 years, really, since all the crap, since X Factor, since the trial. And this, for me, will complete the cycle, because it's the last thing on the list is this overwhelming fear that I have or have had of being on TV. I don't think I would have been able to do this unless I was feeling in such a strong content place.

"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 rights 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."

She won't let her recent hernia op stop her when it comes to trials and is raring to go. She added: "I'm really competitive, like, against myself, and I'm for me to sit like, in front of everyone and have a whole team of people waiting to be fed, and for me to let them down. But there are some things that consume me with fear, like real bad phobias.

"But I think I'm the kind of person that I might just cry through it. It will probably be uncomfortable to watch, but I'll be so stubborn I will literally shake and probably have fits but still not get out and just still do it. So I like to think I'm not going to back down. I'm definitely going to give 100% but anything can happen, especially once you're in there, the environment changes.

"I'm the kind of person that just kind of cracks on so I think maybe because I know that I've made the decision to do it and it's inevitable. I'm just going to make the best out of the situation, and I'm not going to sit and spend time stressing over something I can't change. I just want to enjoy it." After what she has been through, who could begrudge Tulisa a few weeks of fun.

* I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here starts on Sunday night at 9pm on ITV and ITVX.

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