Featured Image Credit: ITV/Andy Sheppard/Redferns
Topics: Im A Celebrity, TV And Film, Tulisa, Celebrity, Health, ITV, Reality TV
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Im A Celebrity, TV And Film, Tulisa, Celebrity, Health, ITV, Reality TV
Fans have rushed to defend I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! star Tulisa after she opened up about the heartbreaking reason why she's had plastic surgery.
Many ITV viewers, myself included, were absolutely buzzing to see the 36-year-old N-Dubz singer on our screens once again after what's felt like a huge hiatus.
I'm A Celeb fans may not know there was actually a reason why Tulisa, who was also once part of the X Factor judging panel, stepped away from the spotlight.
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It turns out that during her time away, the star suffered a pretty serious blow to her health a few years back.
Speaking on Olivia Attwood's So Wrong It's Right podcast earlier this month, Tulisa opened up about her first Bell's palsy attack that happened when she was just 24 years old.
The 'Girls' singer discussed the health condition that she was diagnosed with back in 2020, which the NHS describes as a 'temporary weakness or lack of movement that usually affects one side of the face'.
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Tulisa shared: "I was sat at home, and I had this huge burst of inflammation on my cheek, as if, like, I had an abscess in there or something and I went straight to a doctor.
"They gave me antibiotics, steroid injections - don't know what caused it - and then it went down to a certain extent, left with some mild swelling, and then my whole face just dropped."
She explained that her face 'remained like that for seven months' during which she 'didn't go out' and just 'hid in the house'.
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She continued: "Then, as I was coming to the end of the seven months, my face is still not right. I still have the mild swelling. So what I would do is I would go and get fillers to try and balance out the symmetry."
Describing it a 'vicious cycle', Tulisa said she then started seeing doctors all around the UK until she finally found one who decided to do an 'explorative op' on her which led to them finding 'three chronically infected cysts' in her face.
Tulisa also previously discussed what plastic surgery procedures she's had done on Loose Women back in 2020 where she 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 told viewers. "All the time before there was no surgery, it was only fillers."
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The R&B star 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'.
Unfortunately, a handful of internet trolls took it upon themselves to share their unsolicited opinions on Tulisa's looks, with one person commenting under the podcast video: "What's she done to her face?"
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This prompted an avalanche of support for the singer, with one fan replying: "She says in the video. She had Bell's palsy. Stop commenting on women's appearances."
A second fan penned: "If no one has nothing nice to say... don't say it."
"Ahhh always liked Tulisa. Genuine kind woman. Another reason why people shouldn't be horrible without knowing the personal situation of someone," explained another.
And a final fan echoed: "This was amazing! Thank you very much for having Tulisa on the show. Was superb to get an insight into the industry. "Now, moving forward, I am going to be more mindful of how I speak to others. It's important even though I am not a rude person. Amazing the strength that Tulisa has shown through adversity. She is living out her dream."
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