The N-Dubz singer is trading the life of luxury for the Australian jungle for this season of the show
Tulisa Contostavlos is one of the stars trading the life of luxury for the Australian jungle in this year’s I’m A Celebrity. The 36-year-old is renowned for her role as the lead singer of N-Dubz and former judge on X Factor.
Tulisa has previously said she would never consider ITV’s toughest entertainment challenge. However, she explained why she has had a change of heart this year.
She said: “I am like Frodo Baggins on an unexpected journey. I feel really adventurous this year and in the place I am now in, I want to do things that take me out of my comfort zone.
“I have always said I wouldn’t do this show in the past, as there are things that have terrified me. But the person I am now, I want to throw caution to the wind.”
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Tulisa is not looking forward to the first days in the camp as she said the adjustment period will be tough. She added: “I will probably struggle in the first few days as doing something like this is a big deal for me. I haven’t been thrust this much into the spotlight in a while and I have avoided it out of irrational fear.
“I will probably be the most emotional when I first go in. It will take me a while to settle in, but I know I will get past that.”
Away from the screen, Tulisa has been open about her health battle as she suffers from Bell’s palsy. According to the NHS, the condition is a temporary weakness or lack of movement that usually affects one side of the face.
Tulisa claimed on Loose Women in 2020 that her condition stems from when she suffered nerve damage after a serious horse riding incident. The singer appeared on Olivia Attwood’s So Wrong, It’s Right podcast this year and revealed she suffered her first Bell’s Palsy attack when she was aged 24.
She said: “I was sitting at home and had this huge burst of inflammation on my cheek as if I had an abscess or something. I went straight to a doctor and they gave me antibiotics, and steroid injections, and they don’t know what caused it.
“It went down to a certain extent, I was left with some mild swelling and then my whole face just dropped. I went straight to a doctor, and they gave me antibiotics and steroid injections so it went down and I was left with some mild swelling. But then my whole face just dropped and remained like that for seven months.”
Tulisa said she hid in the house during this time before she decided to get fillers to “try and balance it out”. However, she was still suffering from discomfort due to the impact of Bell’s palsy.
She said: “I would have tingling sensations like little ants crawling in my face. I started seeing doctors all around the UK – ‘Something’s wrong with me, what’s wrong with my face’ – it was so scary. This went all the way up until this year, it was horrific.
“I constantly felt like my cheek was on fire. I’d have good days and bad days, and on some days, I’d take steroids, which would bring it down.
“When I was doing that N-Dubz run [in 2022], it was at its worst, so you might see an interview, I look normal. And then you see another interview, it’s like, what the hell is going on with my face?”
However, Tulisa thinks she has finally got an answer for her health woes as doctors recently found she had “three chronically infected cysts” in her cheek.
Tulisa hopes this has now identified the problem as she said: “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 because in total there were, I think, six [the cysts]. They could have been growing over the years and triggering the Bells.”
Tulisa is not the first I’m A Celebrity campmate to suffer with Bell’s palsy. Previous winner Scarlett Moffatt suffers from the condition, which meant she was exempt from a Bushtucker Trial due to health reasons.
Tulisa will be hoping she can emulate Scarlett’s Queen of the Jungle performance as she looks forward to her stint in the jungle. However, more so than winning, Tulisa said the true mission she wants to achieve in the ITV show is to be her true authentic self.
She added: “If me being my authentic self connects with people in a mass way, then it must mean I’m doing something right in life. But I am not going to go looking for it.
“This isn’t a career move for me either. I will always go back to N-Dubz and this is a one-off experience.” I’m a Celebrity gets underway on ITV and ITVX at 9pm tonight
