Tulisa Contostavlos has stunned fans by revealing that her name has been mispronounced for years. The N-Dubz star made the admission during an appearance on Olivia Attwood’s podcast So Wrong It’s Right ahead of her stint on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here.
The 36-year-old, who entered the jungle alongside Coleen Rooney and GK Barry, addressed the surprising fact after Olivia brought it up.
“Tulisa is not your actual name,” Olivia said, catching Tulisa off guard. “No, it isn’t,” Tulisa replied. “You’re the first person to bring that up ever. Love that.”
Tulisa’s full name is actually Tula Paulinea Contostavlos, a nod to her heritage. “My grandmother is also called Tula, so I was named after her,” she explained. “Tulisa means ‘tiny Tula’ in Greek.”
But that wasn’t the only revelation. Tulisa also explained that the correct pronunciation of her name is Tul-ITZ-ah, not the commonly used Tuh-LEES-a.
READ MORE I'm A Celeb fans in disbelief as they only just realise N-Dubz's name [LATEST]
Laughing, Olivia said: “We just butcher it,” to which the N Dubz singer replied: “Yeah... so that ended up being my nickname in Greek, growing up.”
During the podcast, Tulisa also said that she has undergone plastic surgery due to a Bell’s Palsy diagnosis. According to the NHS, the condition is a temporary weakness or lack of movement that usually affects one side of the face.
She said that at age 24, “I had a massive burst of inflammation and it went down, but my whole face dropped. “I couldn’t move it, my face remained like that for seven months. I didn’t go out, I just hid in the house.”
She claimed that fillers helped her to “balance out” her face after the diagnosis. However, viewers have taken to social media to criticise her looks. They have accused her of having botched cosmetic surgery.
This has led to her presenter pal Rylan Clark hit out at the backlash. He wrote on X: "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"
Don't miss...
Prince Harry's US residency 'hanging by a thread' as Trump makes key new hire [UPDATE]
Zoe Ball's replacement Scott Mills shares insight into BBC star's 'tough year' [INSIGHT]
Emma Raducanu hails 'unheard of' achievement and says 'nobody wants to face me' [LATEST]
Tulisa has taken on the challenge of the ITV jungle, after years of turning it down. Explaining why she finally decided to, she also shared with Olivia: "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.”
