Campmate Tulisa Contostavlos' bandmate and ex-partner Fazer has spoken about her experiencing Bell's palsy whilst supporting her stint on the new series of I'm A Celebrity.
Tulisa, 36, is among the celebrities on the ITV show, which returned recently, and just weeks before the launch, she had opened up about previously being diagnosed with Bell's palsy. The NHS states that it's "temporary weakness or lack of movement that usually affects one side of the face".
The singer-songwriter revealed on a podcast, released just last month, that she had filler to address swelling in the face amid her experience with the condition. Her appearance has attracted attention and commentary in recent weeks.
N-Dubz bandmate Fazer, 37 - whose real name is Richard Rawson - is among those supporting Tulisa amid her time in the jungle. Fazer, who briefly dated her more than a decade ago, told the Sun that Tulisa should be an "inspiration to women" over her experience with the condition.
He said that it had been "heartbreaking" to see, adding: "At one point, T won FHM's Sexiest Woman. You've got to think, from that to having Bell's palsy and trying to fix it . . . it's a lot for any female. That's why I feel like the public should be behind T and say 'you know what, she's one of our own, and she's been through it'." He further described her as a "f***ing fighter" and expressed "praise" to her in the interview.
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Getty Images)Fazer isn't the only pal of Tulisa's to have defended her. Rylan Clark, 36, warned against viewers commenting on her appearance last week. He tweeted: "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*** jokes about her."
Prior to heading to Australia, Tulisa spoke about her experience with Bell's palsy on Olivia Attwood's So Wrong It's Right podcast. She said: "When I was about 24, I had my first Bell's palsy attack. So I sat at home and I had this massive burst of inflammation." Tulisa said it "went down to a certain extent" after receiving treatment but then her "whole face just dropped".
She recalled not being able to move her face and said it remained like that for seven months, during which time she "hid in the house". Tulisa continued: "As I was coming to the end of the seven months, my face was still not right [...] I would go and get fillers to try and balance out the symmetry. So I'd be like right, 'if you put some in that cheek to match the swelling on that cheek and then if you put some here to lift this up so my lip isn’t down there'. So you can imagine the like vicious cycle."
Tulisa said that she had two years without an episode, before noticing "low-level swelling" in the same cheek. She said: "It started to get worse. I would have like tingling sensations like little ants crawling in my face. [...] It was scary and then what happened was because I had this low-level swelling, I then dissolved all the filler in [one side of my face] and I would match the inflammation by putting filler in the other side. So you have this side swollen and this side is filler to match the swelling."
She commented: "This went all the way up until this year [...] I'd have good days and bad days, and I'm also on some days, I'd take steroids, which would bring it down."
Tulisa said that she was later told that a few infected cysts had been found around her cheek. She said: "So I basically had these cysts that were sat all around [my] cheek and they were swelling up with infection." She added: "I came out of the operation and then instantly my face was less swollen."
She said that there are still some "shadows" on scans and she continues to have "inflammation but it's way less". Tulisa said that she's preparing to have the remaining cysts removed in the future and will "hopefully" be "completely back to normal" then.
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