Another day, another famous woman having her appearance dissected by strangers on the internet. The woman in question, Tulisa Contostavlos, has had a particularly rough time of it too. Tulisa first found fame as part of the mid noughties London hip hop trio, N-Dubz, when she was in her late teens. In 2011, at the age of 23, she became a household name when she joined the panel of judges on The X Factor. The following year, she was the victim of revenge porn when her ex-boyfriend Justin Edwards released a sex tape that ultimately derailed the trajectory of her career.
Now she is one of ten celebrities living in the infamous I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here jungle. Already dubbed a ‘fan favourite’, most people were delighted to see the self-titled ‘female boss’ back on their screens. Others, regrettably, have taken to trolling her appearance. And according to Google Trends, ‘Tulisa face lift’, ‘Tulisa botox’, and even ‘what has Tulisa done to her face?’ are all trending right now.
Aside from a few appearances on Loose Women, and N Dubz’ reunion in 2022, Tulisa largely kept out of the limelight in the years that followed. Seeing this reaction, it's not exactly difficult to understand why.
She's had a difficult time with fame. Speaking on Olivia Attwood’s podcast in October, Tulisa said it felt like ‘virtual rape’ when her sex tape was leaked in 2012. The singer went on to say she felt ‘judged, disgusting and ashamed’ during that period. Not only that, but revenge porn was not yet illegal so Tulisa only received 'an apology' from her ex.
‘It’s taken me years. I didn’t even know how long I would need to process it,’ she told the podcast host. ‘It’s affected my relationships to this day and intimacy and all those kinds of things – it’s life changing in a big, big way.’
In 2013, Tulisa was also the victim of a ‘tabloid sting’, whereby she was targeted by Mazher Mahmood, an undercover journalist, posing as an influential film producer who wanted her to star in a Hollywood blockbuster. Mahmood met the singer at a hotel in London where she allegedly arranged for him to be sold half an ounce of cocaine by one of her contacts.
She was later arrested and charged with being concerned in the supply of a class A drug after Mahmood handed evidence to the police. However, the trial was eventually thrown out after Mahmood’s driver changed his statement to remove comments the singer had made about her disapproval of hard drugs. Mahood was later found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. As for Tulisa, she has spoken candidly about feeling suicidal in the wake of the whole ordeal and the damage the case did to her reputation. She told Sky News, ‘I didn’t have any fight left in me. I don’t know who that person was but she was in a very dark place.’
Three years later, Tulisa fronted the BBC Three documentary Tulisa: The Price of Fame, where she charted her experience of being treated as tabloid fodder and the long-term consequences of fame.
In her conversation with Olivia Attwood in October, she also spoke about being formally diagnosed with Bell’s palsy in 2020 – a condition she has had for 12 years. According to the NHS, Bell’s palsy is a temporary weakness or lack of movement that usually affects one side of the face. ‘When I was about 24, I had my first Bell’s palsy attack, so went down to a certain extent, left with some mild swelling and then my whole face just dropped.’ She later added, ‘My face remained like that for seven months. I didn’t go out, I just hid.’
This is the person who has, against all odds, found the strength to go on one of the biggest entertainment shows in the UK – the launch alone netted 7.7 million viewers. It’s likely that Tulisa is hoping her stint on the show will help her reclaim her narrative.
How terrible, then, to see people immediately mock her appearance – especially those who are doing so in relation to Bell’s palsy. Luckily everyone’s favourite ally Rylan Clark was quick to jump to her defence after the opening episode of I’m A Celeb. He posted on X to say, ‘Also before people start going for appearance, Tulisa has been through a lot health wise the last few years so let’s not make shit jokes about her on twitter yeah x’. Well said, Rylan.
As someone in the public eye, Tulisa is not the first or last person to undergo cosmetic ‘tweakments’ to meet the ever-moving benchmark of beauty either. Nor has she ever denied having anything done. In fact, before heading into the jungle, the singer posted about having filler in her lips, lip liner tattooed, and her eyebrows permanently filled in. Any changes people may have observed about her appearance are not a secret – nor are they an excuse to mock her online.
With a shopping list of cosmetic procedures creeping its way into the mainstream anyway, it's hard for anyone to escape the pressure to look as 'perfect' as possible – even if that means different things to different people. Let alone someone like Tulisa, who has spent the best part of her life being judged by the public.
All too often we watch women at the height of fame get torn to shreds by the tabloids and trolls on social media. Fortunately, although not commonly, we witness them rebuild themselves and carve out a new path on their own terms. If this is Tulisa’s opportunity to defy the years of torment, ridicule and injustice she has been subjected to – please let’s not focus on her appearance.