Dressed in a pink vest top with her hair scraped back in a bun, Tulisa Contostavlos appeared distraught as she told her fans of her torment since leaving the I’m A Celeb jungle.
In an Instagram video, which she recorded in her £1,000-a-night hotel room at the JW Marriott on Australia’s Gold Coast, the usually glamorous singer looked a shadow of her former self as she described the after-effects of her shock exit from the reality show on Monday night.
Since then, I’m told, she has been distraught – so much so that she didn’t appear on the spin-off programme Unpacked on Tuesday night with all the other evictees. Nor has she been seen around the resort, prompting speculation that she had jumped on a plane back to Britain.
Tulisa also addressed the reasons behind her removal of the social media posts which had been put online while in the jungle.
‘I’m going to archive all my stuff to do with the jungle and, when the time is right and I’ve had a little time to process, I’m gonna make my own with all my best bits that I really like,’ she said.
‘Remember, I haven’t been doing my Instagram – the way everything’s posted and all the random stuff is not the way I would do my Insta.’
Singer Tulisa Contostavlos speaks on Instagram after being voted out of reality show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! She said: ‘I’m going to archive all my stuff to do with the jungle and, when the time is right and I’ve had a little time to process, I’m gonna make my own of with all my best bits that I really like’
While her comments might explain why she wanted to take down the posts, the Mail can reveal that what Tulisa kept secret from her 736,000 followers was a huge bust-up that she had with her best friend, singer Michelle McKenna, who had been put in charge of her Instagram account while she was on I’m A Celeb.
Sources close to the two women – who have been friends since they were teenagers – say they were screaming at one another after Tulisa made clear she was unhappy about the ‘kind of content’ being shared by Michelle and her boyfriend, Daniel Johnson.
The post which particularly irked Tulisa, 36, was a video in which Michelle and Daniel joked that dinner was on the singer when she left the jungle, I’m told. A friend said that she felt it was ‘inappropriate’.
‘They were only in Australia because of Tulisa,’ explained the source. ‘It felt like they were revelling in the situation and taking liberties on her kindness.
‘Michelle and Daniel were there, on a trip funded by ITV and only because of Tulisa. They were there because of her and she trusted them with her social media.
‘When she got out of the jungle and saw what had been put on there, she was upset and it prompted a huge row. You can’t help but think that seeing her friends living it up like that while she was roughing it in the jungle must have really annoyed her.
‘They were in a five-star hotel, with most expenses paid, so it does all feel a little bit rotten for Tulisa,’ they added. ‘She is so upset. She was distraught to see what had been posted and she wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible.’
Just hours earlier, Michelle had met Tulisa as she came off the famous I’m A Celeb bridge when she became the third campmate to be evicted. They travelled back to the Marriott together but, when Tulisa got out of the blacked-out people carrier, she walked into the hotel alone with a face like thunder.
Donning the jungle gear, the 36-year-old beams as she recalls her adventure with hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly
Once inside, she was seen jumping into Daniel’s arms and he swung her around. The plan was for the trio to spend the next five days together on the Gold Coast until the final on Sunday to milk Tulisa’s time in the jungle. They would then jet home next week.
But rumours were soon swirling around the hotel – where Coleen Rooney’s parents and two youngest sons are staying, as well as evictees Jane Moore, Dean McCullough and Melvin Odoom – that Tulisa was already on her way home.
ITV wouldn’t comment on her whereabouts, but insisted that there were no problems between the channel and Tulisa. She had, sources claim, ‘done a disappearing act’.
‘Tulisa literally went missing,’ said one insider. ‘The celebrities have been mixing, having a laugh and making the most of their time in Oz – but she had gone. The talk is that she has gone home and didn’t want anything more to do with the show.’
Tulisa and Michelle – an urban dance artist – have been best friends since the N-Dubz singer moved to Manchester two years ago for a ‘better quality of life’.
The star bought a new-build mansion in Congleton, Cheshire, to be nearer to her best friends. They helped her decorate her home, which boasts a games and cinema room, an office, a home gym and a Jacuzzi in the garden.
Michelle, who is also a former Noughties pop star with the band Platnum, flew out to support Tulisa ten days ago, with Daniel arriving just after his girlfriend.
While Down Under, Michelle left Tulisa’s fans in no doubt about how close they were when she appeared on ITV’s Lorraine show. She talked about Tulisa’s appearance in the jungle and also shared secrets about her Bell’s palsy – a facial condition which had blighted the star’s life.
Michelle McKenna hugs Tulisa as she walks the famous I’m A Celeb bridge after becoming the third campmate to be evicted. They travelled to the Marriott together but, when Tulisa got out of the blacked-out people carrier, she walked into the hotel alone
Michelle said: ‘She has been suffering a lot. She’s had Bell’s palsy and she’s also had to have operations to have cysts removed. Her whole face was drooping.’
When asked what she’d say to the public, she added: ‘Be nice, keep your mouth shut.’
The two women were so close that before going on I’m A Celeb, Tulisa told the Mail: ‘I have my best mate, Michelle, and her partner, Daniel, who’s like a brother to me, and then maybe a couple of other people. They get a lovely holiday and I get to suffer and get covered in crazy stuff.’
Those who know them say that they are ‘immensely close’ and Tulisa even spent Christmas with them last year, with everyone dressing up in matching pyjamas with Michelle’s son.
For Tulisa, the fall-out will be a sad ending to her I’m A Celeb stint, which was designed to be her big comeback to the limelight 11 years after her career was ruined when she fell victim to an elaborate sting by the now disgraced ‘Fake Sheikh’ Mazher Mahmood – a tabloid journalist who specialised in winning the trust of celebrities by posing as a wealthy Arab.
After offering Tulisa a £3.5million role in a Bollywood movie, he flew the singer to Los Angeles and Las Vegas and introduced to her so-called co-stars in the penthouse of a five-star hotel. He spent weeks talking to her about Bollywood big-names who would potentially appear alongside her.
Hours were spent discussing the plot and Tulisa was told she would film in several locations, including India, America and Africa. She was later arrested for allegedly helping supply cocaine to Mahmood and a year later went on trial.
However, during the hearing, he was found to have altered evidence and the trial collapsed, fully exonerating Tulisa. But her world had already been shattered and she lost everything.
‘I’m A Celeb was her way back,’ said one source close to Tulisa. ‘It was all supposed to be such a happy time, it was supposed to be the start of something so wonderful and new for her. She has had the worst decade, she lost everything and had been rebuilding.
‘Let’s hope she can look back on the good times she had in the jungle once the dust has settled.’
- Additional reporting from Dolly Busby in Australia.