I'm a Celeb's Tulisa defended by Rylan as he reminds nasty trolls of her health issues

Rylan Clark has hit out at nasty trolls as his famous friend, Tulisa Contostavlos, entered ITV's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! jungle. The much loved show, which sees a line up of celebs battle it out to be crowned the camp's king or queen, returned for the 2024 series this evening (November 17).

However, as Tulisa joined other famous faces including Coleen Rooney, Loose Women's Jane Moore and podcast host GK Barry, fans on social media took it as a cruel opportunity to criticise her looks. They accused her of having botched cosmetic surgery, much to the heartache of her friend Rylan.

The former X Factor star decided to use his voice on his own social media account to remind viewers of Tulisa's ongoing health battles. Writing on X/Twitter, the BBC Radio 2 presenter wrote: "Also before people start going for appearance, Tulisa has been through a lot health wise the last few years so let’s not make s**t jokes about her on twitter yeah x"

Some loving fans joined in with Rylan on offering Tulisa thier support. One wrote: "I absolutely adore Tulisa, and hate the utter vile crap being said about her already. No need for it. She’s a freaking icon, and I know she’s gonna smash this."

Another added: "I just don’t think anybody should be commenting about anybody’s appearance." While a third said: "She looks incredible! And she looks determined to do well on this!!"

Tulisa is renowned for her role as the lead singer of N-Dubz and former judge on X Factor. Explaining why she wanted to take on the challenge of the ITV jungle, after years of turning it down, the 36-year-old said: "I am like Frodo Baggins on an unexpected journey.

"I feel really adventurous this year and in the place I am now in, I want to do things that take me out of my comfort zone.

"I have always said I wouldn’t do this show in the past, as there are things that have terrified me. But the person I am now, I want to throw caution to the wind.”

She added: "I will probably struggle in the first few days as doing something like this is a big deal for me. I haven’t been thrust this much into the spotlight in a while and I have avoided it out of irrational fear.

"I will probably be the most emotional when I first go in. It will take me a while to settle in, but I know I will get past that.”

The singer previously opened up on her health issues, including her battle with Bell's Palsy. According to the NHS, the condition is a temporary weakness or lack of movement that usually affects one side of the face.

The singer appeared on Olivia Attwood's So Wrong, It's Right podcast this year and revealed she suffered her first Bell's Palsy attack when she was aged 24. She said: "I was sitting at home and had this huge burst of inflammation on my cheek as if I had an abscess or something. I went straight to a doctor and they gave me antibiotics, and steroid injections, and they don’t know what caused it.

"It went down to a certain extent, I was left with some mild swelling and then my whole face just dropped. I went straight to a doctor, and they gave me antibiotics and steroid injections so it went down and I was left with some mild swelling. But then my whole face just dropped and remained like that for seven months."

Explaining how the condition feels, she added: "I would have tingling sensations like little ants crawling in my face. I started seeing doctors all around the UK – ‘Something’s wrong with me, what’s wrong with my face’ – it was so scary. This went all the way up until this year, it was horrific.

"I constantly felt like my cheek was on fire. I’d have good days and bad days, and on some days, I’d take steroids, which would bring it down."