Tulisa Contostavlos has opened up about her sex tape.
The former N-Dubz singer said that the leak has taken her “many years” to come to terms with after her ex-boyfriend Justin Edwards released the tape back in 2012, during the height of her stardom.
Tulisa admitted that the move felt like “virtual rape” and that she felt “judged, disgusting and ashamed” when she returned to her The X Factor panellist role after the incident. She spoke to former Love Island star Olivia Attwood about the incident while filming an episode of her podcast.
While on the So Wrong It’s Right podcast, Tulisa explained: “Honestly, there’s no words to describe. It felt like virtual rape, that’s the only way I can describe the emotion. It was just horrific. I felt so, just, judged and I felt disgusting, I felt ashamed.”
“It just felt horrible, there’s no words to describe. It’s taken me many, many years to come to terms with it. Now, for me, all pain is growth, so every single part of my experiences I was meant to feel and I wouldn’t be the person I am today without them.”
Tulisa explained that there “is no regret” from her behalf and recognised that the situation was “her path,” before stating that she was “meant to live it”.
She then touched upon her experience on The X Factor after the sex tape leak: “I just became miserable by the end of that second year, I wasn’t going to do the show again.”
“I just hated it, I hated it every day. Like I said, it’s taken me years. I didn’t even know how long I would need to process it. It’s affected my relationships to this day and intimacy and all those kinds of things - it’s life changing in a big, big way.”
At the time, revenge porn was not yet illegal so Contostavlos only received an apology from her ex-boyfriend. Tulisa is still affected “to this day”.
Speaking in 2012, as the tape circulated on social media, Tulisa said: "I would just like to put it out there that this is the person Justin Edwards aka Ultra, who is my ex-boyfriend that has put it online and who is the other person in the tape. I am devastated, heartbroken and have been in bits for the last few days."
Over on X/Twitter, someone defended Tulisa and tweeted: “It wasn’t a nice thing to be released…I would be mortified if it were me. I have sympathy for her. She may have consented to having it filmed but did not release it for public consumption. I wonder if there were any criminal charges. Her career took a massive setback after that.”
A law related to the unlawful sharing of explicit images only came into force in 2014, meaning Tulisa was unable to seek justice in 2012 and Edwards was unable to be prosecuted. The star did take civil action and eventually settled with Edwards after he admitted he had been behind the tape's release.
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