Tulisa Contostavlos has revealed how her life ‘fell apart’ in 2013, after she was set up in an elaborate drugs sting and arrested on suspicion of supplying class A drugs.
On Wednesday night’s I’m A Celebrity, the N-Dubz singer, 36, confided in Oti Mabuse why she has largely been out of the spotlight for the past decade after her year from hell.
Tulisa emotionally spoke about how she was convinced she would spend four years in prison after Mazher Mahmood, also known as the Fake Sheik, a then journalist for the Sun on Sunday tricked her into giving him a contact from which he bought £800 worth of cocaine.
Recalling the traumatic event, the singer said: ‘2013 was the year I was set up by a British newspaper, for concern in the selling of class A drugs.
‘The guy’s name was Mahmood and basically, I was approached by a big movie company and they sent me a tweet or a DM from their official account to audition me for a movie role.
‘I’d dabbled in acting, so this opportunity for me was huge.’
Tulisa revealed she was offered £3.5million for the role with promises she would star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. She was flown out to Las Vegas for meetings with producers.
She said: ‘They flew me out to Las Vegas, first class flights, limousines and 5 star hotels.’
When Oti asked if the film project was real, Tulisa said: ‘Oh no, I found out it was a lie.’
Tulisa said she was encouraged to behave like how the ‘girl in the role’ would to ensure she could play the part.
She said: ‘So I was told, as I wasn’t an actress, I was less likely to get the role and the only reason I would get it is if I was the girl in the role, and the girl in the role was this bad girl from London who was constantly up to naughtiness, rolling with gangs, up to all kinds of naughty stuff.’
Tulisa said Mazher had her ‘dangling at the end of a string’ with the meetings being ‘dragged out for months’.
She said every time she met up with them, they’d say to her: ‘We need some drugs.’
Tulisa said: ‘After months and months, eventually they got a number and it was of someone that wasn’t even a drug dealer, it was an aspiring movie producer and I wanted to make a hook up as well for that person, but I didn’t know anyone that could do that.
‘The long story short is they ended up ordering £800’s worth of cocaine from the number that I had given them. Then before I knew it, I was being arrested in the concern of the selling of Class A drugs and I was facing four years in prison.
‘I lost all my endorsements… my life fell apart.’
Tulisa was arrested on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs and faced trial at Southwark Crown Court. The singer feared she would be sentenced to four years in prison.
She told Oti: ‘When it came to the trial, I’d had a conversation with one of their drivers, I was being recorded but I didn’t know, I was saying how anti-drugs I am, so they were very aware of my feelings towards drugs.’
Tulisa said the driver initially gave a statement confirming she was anti-drugs.
She said she thought: ‘That was it, I’m done for, I’m going down.’
But Tulisa said she prayed that night and the driver went to her lawyers and confided in them what had happened.
The case against Tulisa collapsed when it was alleged undercover reporter Mazher had attempted to suppress evidence from his driver.
She said: ‘The case fell apart… the friend I had was free, I was free, [Mahmood] was charged with perverting the course of justice and he was facing the same amount of time that I was facing and he ended up going to prison.’
Mazher was jailed for 15 months for perverting the course of justice.
The following ten years were ‘hell’ for Tulisa who had an entire future ahead of her ruined by the sting.
Oti said after Tulisa shared her story: ‘I feel really sorry that she’s had to go through so much, you can see that there’s a strength in her, there’s just an amazing woman, that every time you knock her down, she’s going to come back fighting’.
