She’s set to enter the jungle this week, and insiders now tell Closer that Tulisa Contostavlos is hoping her stint on I’m A Celebrity! could be a chance for her to find love, having been single for two years.
Tulisa, 36 – who recently revealed that she’s been celibate for two years – would love to find romance down under.
‘Tulisa would love a rumble in the jungle,’ the source teases. ‘She’s a die-hard romantic, and the tough exterior is just a front after she’s built up a resistance to a lifetime of let-downs.’
The potential single men entering the jungle include presenter Melvin Odoom and Corrie star Alan Halsall.
While Tulisa has had a string of famous exes including The Wanted’s Max George and actor Jack O’Connell, she has kept her private life largely out of the spotlight, following a sex tape and drugs scandal 10 years ago.
Having risen to fame in MOBO-award winning hip-hop band N-Dubz alongside her cousin Dappy and ex Fazer in the early 2000s, Tulisa then became TV’s golden girl after she caught the eye of Simon Cowell and snapped up a spot on The X Factor judging panel, replacing Cheryl.
But the TV favourite plummeted out of the limelight in 2012 when a video of her having sex with her ex- boyfriend, rapper MC Ultra, was leaked on the internet.
Two years later, Tulisa was embroiled in a drug charge, which she denied at the time, and the case was later dismissed in court, as the judge ruled it had been part of an undercover sting operation.
She took a step back from showbiz and kept a low profile, until last year when N-Dubz reunited for their first tour in a decade. And recently Tulisa appeared on Olivia Attwood’s podcast So Wrong It’s Right, where she revealed that she spent the last seven months indoors due to health condition Bell’s palsy.
And insiders say that Tulisa is hoping I’m A Celebrity! could really be the ultimate comeback for her.
‘Tulisa wants this stint in the jungle to be a potential redemption for her,’ sources tell Closer. ‘She wants viewers to see the real her; the softer side, and the side they all loved before things turned sour. She wants to redeem herself and make a comeback.
‘The jungle will not only challenge her but will be a therapy of mental endurance – and she’s ready for the challenge.’