I'm A Celebrity: Tulisa reflects on 'unexpected' role she played in camp despite 'fiery' reputation
"I'm just a bit of a mother hen"
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! star Tulisa Contostavlos has opened up about surprising fans with her temperament in last year’s camp.
The 37-year-old was a guest on the latest instalment of Lorraine on ITV – promoting her new tell-all “novel form” autobiography Judgement: Love, Trials and Tribulations.
Host Lorraine Kelly pointed out how Tulisa’s appearance in the 2024 reality series rewrote the script when it came to her “fiery” reputation.
I’m A Celebrity ‘let people see the real’ Tulisa
Lorraine began by telling today’s (November 26) guest: “It seems to me now that you’re actually in a really good place…”
“I am, I’m feeling very balanced. You can hear it in the energy,” smiled Tulisa. It was then mentioned how the N-Dubz star’s persona was probably the opposite of what I’m A Celebrity viewers anticipated.
“When you were in the celebrity jungle, I don’t know what people were expecting but I don’t think they were expecting this very serene, nurturing woman,” said Lorraine. “Yeah, yeah. Before the jungle, I used to have that very sort of crazy party girl, wild fiery reputation,” agreed Tulisa.
“But most of the time I’m pretty chilled out. If I was anymore chilled out I’d be asleep! So it was nice to let people see the real me, I’m just a bit of a mother hen.”
Tulisa endured night terrors in the jungle
Meanwhile, the star previously spoke to Paul C Brunson about her I’m A Celebrity experience on his We Need to Talk podcast.
Unbeknownst to viewers and her fellow campers, Tulisa endured night terrors for the first four nights.
“Some of the things you didn’t see – I was waking up out of my sleep, and I was having anxiety attacks,” she revealed. “Those parts, not everyone knows, so it wasn’t completely smooth sailing for me at all, but I have a great poker face. I really can turn it on, especially when I’m faced with adversity.
“The last thing I wanted to do was go in there and be the hot mess,” the hip-hop artist added. “So if anything, I’m going to be the biggest soldier there is.”
Why was Tulisa missing from the Coming Out show?
Following the series’ conclusion, Tulisa did not appear in the Coming Out post-jungle reunion special.
Explaining why she jumped on a flight back to the UK as soon as possible, she told Paul that she’d had enough of the camera’s glare.
“When I came out, I began to cry when I had the first moment to myself,” recalled Tulisa. “I spoke to my team, they said, ‘What’s wrong?’ And I said ‘Please don’t put me back on camera. I need to be off now, it’s too much. I’m really proud of myself but I pushed myself too far, too soon, I need to go home.'”
She went on to say how “blessed” she was to be capable of taking care of herself if her mind wasn’t in the right place. “I’m not going to push myself over any edges. I need to take care of myself, I need to protect me.”
Read more: I’m A Celebrity 2025: Tom Read Wilson’s close friend on star’s ‘real voice’
