The former N-Dubz singer made her I’m A Celeb debut tonight (17 November)
Many I’m A Celeb viewers are seeing N-Dubz singer and former X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos tonight (17 Nov) for the first time in years following the star’s break from reality television.
What many fans of the show mightn’t have realised, however, is that part of the reason behind the musician’s absence from the spotlight was due to a change in her appearance following a brutal blow to her health back in 2020.
A heartbreaking diagnosis left followers of the star wondering whether she’d undergone cosmetic surgery, but she decided to set the record straight on the matter.
The singer’s appearance changed following a heartbreaking health diagnosis (Mike Marsland/WireImage)
‘I had good days and bad days’
Appearing on ITV chat-show Loose Women back in 2020, the 36-year-old insisted she hadn’t gone wholly under the knife until more recently, despite speculation that she’d amended her looks in the years prior.
“I hadn’t had any surgery until, confession time, recently,” she began by telling viewers.
“All the time before there was no surgery, it was only fillers.”
Addressing the reasoning behind her injectables, she revealed a health diagnosis – which left her face both swollen and inflamed – had prompted her decision.
Tulisa shared the news of her diagnosis in 2020 (Brian Rasic/Getty Images)
Tulisa revealed back in 2020 that she’d been diagnosed with Bell’s palsy.
What is Bell’s palsy?
Bell’s palsy is condition involving a type of facial paralysis where the muscles in the affected side of the face are hard to move on a temporary basis.
Symptoms of Bell’s palsy include:
- weakness on one side of your face, or not being able to move one side of your face
- drooling
- a dry mouth
- loss of taste
- a dry or watering eye
“I had a massive burst of inflammation and it went down but my whole face dropped,” the former X Factor judge explained.
“I couldn’t move it, my face remained like that for seven months, I didn’t go out, I just hid in the house.”
The R&B singer added: “That was very stressful and my face still wasn’t right so I started getting fillers to balance out the symmetry.”
Tulisa was initially freed of the condition in the years after her diagnosis, but her Bell’s palsy flared back up again in 2022, an experience she previously branded ‘scary’.
It was then that she made the decision to have her facial filler dissolved and re-injected in other areas of the face in order to balance out the swelling.
“I had good days and bad days and I’d sometimes take steroids to bring it down,” she reflected on her flare-up.
“In some interviews I looked fine, in others you’d ask, ‘What the hell is going on with her face?'”
She added that, earlier this year, three ‘chronically infected cysts’ were found in her cheek area by doctors during an explorative operation, claiming medics had ‘no idea’ what the cause was.
“I came out of the operation instantly less swollen,” she went on.
“I still have the inflammation but it’s less swollen.”
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Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@tulisacontostavlos/ITV
