Tulisa Contostavlos has revealed that she used to fight her N-Dubz co-star in a bid to “toughen” up and learn to “fight like a man”.
The singer was the third celebrity to leave the I’m A Celeb jungle this year, but opted to return home to Manchester instead of hanging around for the final on December 8. She could still appear on tonight’s Coming Out show on ITV 1, though.
In Tulisa’s 2012 autobiography, ‘Honest: My Story So Far’, the N-Dubz star opened up about a time in her life when she was getting into fights, and it left her in a predicament.
She said that she couldn’t tell her dad “someone had beaten the s**t out of me” and had to live by the “rules of the street”, which included not informing the police or she’d be labelled as a “snitch”.
However, it “enraged” her N Dubz bandmates, Dappy and Richard ‘Fazer’ Rawson, when she arrived at the studio looking like she’d been in a “boxing match”, so they tried to help her.
Tulisa wrote: “Dappy would sometimes confront various girls that had it in for me, and even Richard would drum up help and support from his older female cousin, who was a hard girl who nobody messed with.
“Eventually, Dappy and Richard actually started training me up, and we’d have sparring matches. They tried to toughen me up by fighting with me, and they didn’t pull any punches either.
“Dappy and I would have full-on fights, punching the s**t out of one another, just to make me stronger. I came away with black eyes and busted lips courtesy of Dappy and Richard, but at the same time, they taught me to fight like a man, which is what I needed.”
She went on to say that she would spar with Dappy’s friends and often ended up “on the floor” but gave as “good as I got” if it was a “fair match”.
The ‘I Need You’ singer added that she didn’t feel like she could go “running” to her parents because she thought it would make her look “weak”, with the rapper believing she had to be “tough to survive”.
Her absence from the finale was noted by fans, with one saying: “Tulisa is nowhere to be seen,” while another said, “OMG! You’d miss Tulisa being beside Oti all the time. I really wonder what happened.”
However, Tulisa recently posted a series of shots from the show on her Instagram account and issued an apology to her campmates for missing the final.
She said: “Looking back at some of my favourite moments from the @Imacelebrity jungle. It’s been a whirlwind.
“Thank you to @itv for the experience and sending so much love to my Jungle Fam before the final tonight. Sorry I can’t be there to celebrate with you all.”
I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! Coming Out airs Friday at 9pm on ITV1, STV and ITVX.