Tulisa rose to fame as a teenager alongside Dappy and Fazer in the hip-hop trio N-Dubz, eventually becoming a household name as an X Factor judge in 2011. Her trajectory shifted violently in 2013 when she was arrested for supplying cocaine following a sting by undercover journalist Mazher Mahmood. While she was eventually cleared of all charges after evidence tampering was exposed, the legal battle left her reeling. She retreated from the public eye for five years, grappling with the fallout of the trial and a diagnosis of Bell’s palsy.
Tulisa Contostavlos on finding peace after a decade of public turmoil
“I had moments when I felt like the world was ending and I was screaming on my bedroom floor,” Tulisa Contostavlos admits, reflecting on the 2013 sting operation that nearly destroyed her career. Now 38, the singer is stepping out of a long shadow, trading past trauma for a disciplined, authentic life.
Returning to the spotlight in 2019, Tulisa rejoined N-Dubz and later appeared on I’m A Celebrity! in 2024. Despite the return to fame, she notes that the transition back to the limelight required significant mental processing. Last November, she committed to a radical personal overhaul, documenting the traits of her “greatest self” and systematically adopting them. This shift included quitting smoking and traveling to Peru and Egypt to complete long-held bucket list goals. With new music, a documentary, and a book in development, she describes this period as her most active year in over a decade, signaling a definitive move away from her past struggles.
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