She’s a British icon, but here’s a lookback at Tulisa’s unforgettable scandals over the years

Tulisa Contostavlos, known professionally as Tulisa, is one of this year’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here contestants after weathering controversies and scandals for most of her working life.

The weather is cooling, and the leaves are fully orange, meaning I’m a Celeb is here. Tulisa is in the jungle with GK Barry, Colleen Rooney, Danny Jones, and more as they battle each other and audience opinions for a shot at the crown.

Though we know that Tulisa can throw down with the best of them, we hope the British public has evolved since the last time Tulisa hit the headlines numerous times a week.

From 2012, Tulisa was a punching bag for some of the UK’s biggest tabloids in a move that The Guardian’s Suzanne Moore later attributed to her working-class background. She said that “Tulisa has been branded by the media as a chav and therefore almost anything can be said about her.”

via ITV

Tulisa’s sex tape scandal

In 2012 following the breakup of Tulisa’s hip-hop trio N-Dubz,  she signed on as an X Factor judge and mentored the likes of Little Mix, Ella Henderson, and Lucy Spraggan. At the same time, Tulisa’s “world was ending” as a sex tape featuring her ex-boyfriend Justin Edwards was leaked online.

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“The first year [on X Factor] was a very happy time. I think it was the tape where it all went wrong for me. When the tape came out I felt like I had lost control again. This isn’t how I wanted to be portrayed and afterward going back out there it was the thought of facing the audience, the crowd,” she said in the BBC Three documentary, Tulisa: The Price of Fame. “Even though I was a judge, I was being judged. More than anyone, more than the contestants. The judges get judged the most. I just found it so hard to face people again.”

She later acquired a High Court order banning the publication of the clip whilst also receiving an apology from her ex.

Arrested on drug charges

Tulisa moved past the damaging scandal but was soon embroiled in more legal battles as she was arrested on suspicion of supplying class-A drugs in 2013.

What began as a drug bust involving £800 of cocaine soon spiralled into an elaborate sting operation designed by News of the World reporter Mazher Mahmood, also known as Fake Sheik. Her trial exposed Mazher’s tampering with evidence and lying in the witness box, something he was jailed for 15 months for as Tulisa was acquitted of charges.

“Let me be perfectly clear, I have never dealt drugs and I have never been involved in taking or dealing cocaine. This whole case was a horrific and disgusting entrapment by Mazher Mahmood,” she said at the time.

Tulisa was later convicted of assaulting Vas J Morgan

Tulisa found herself in court again later that year as blogger and The Only Way Is Essex star Vas J Morgan accused her of assault. The X Factor judge had reportedly smacked him at V Festival in Essex, with Tulisa claiming he had insulted her mentally ill mother.

She maintained her innocence throughout but was ultimately ordered to pay £3,000. Tulisa later appealed the court’s decision, claiming the victim had a strange “obsession” with her, but the court upheld the original conviction.

The singer was banned from driving for 15 months

In 2016, Tulisa pleaded guilty to drunk driving after she crashed her Ferrari on the wrong side of the road. No one was injured in the “minor collision”, but the sportscar did impact another vehicle with two passengers.

Despite the prosecution dropping the dangerous driving charges, she was still banned from driving for 15 months and ordered to pay a £1,000 fine.

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