Tulisa 'didn't leave house' after terrifying health battle saw her cheek 'blow up'

Tulisa has faced years of rumours that she has had plastic surgery, but says she only recently went under the knife for the first time after a terrifying health diagnosis

Tulisa Contostavlos revealed she “didn’t leave the house” for seven months after her face suddenly “blew up”.

The former N-Dubz star says she was sitting at home when she was 24 and noticed her face had a sudden onset of inflammation. It prompted her to seek medical attention, with doctors suspecting she had Bell’s palsy.

The condition sees sufferers' faces drooping and can lead to a loss of taste, a dry mouth, or even a dry or watering eye. Tulisa says steroids and antibiotics initially led to the swelling going down, until a second sudden onset.

Speaking on Olivia Attwood’s So Wrong It’s Right podcast, Tulisa, 36, revealed she suffered with the condition after years of rumours she had plastic surgery. She says she had fillers previously, but only recently had surgery related to the condition.

She said: “When I was about 24, I had my first Bell’s palsy attack. So I was sat at home and I had this massive burst of inflammation.

“I was sat 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, 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 can’t move it.

“My face remained like that for seven months. I didn’t go out and I just hid in the house.”

Tulisa said the sudden onset of the condition was “very stressful”. With the swelling still there seven months after the attack, she says she turned to fillers to make both sides of her face symmetrical.

As the swelling went down, she said she had a two-year period without an attack, until she noticed a low level inflammation. She continued: “I was like great, what’s this now, and it started to get worse.

“I would have tingling sensations and it was like little ants crawling on my face. I started seeing doctors around the UK.”

She said it prompted her to have all of the filler in her face dissolved to use more to match the levels of swelling. Eventually she says surgeons found “shadows” on her ultrasound scan that led to an operation.

The popstar says the surgeon discovered three cysts in her face that were swelling up and then scarring over repeatedly. She said her face was instantly “less swollen” after the operation to sort the cysts, but says she will have to have further operations to fix the issue.