Who is Tulisa Contostavlos’ half-brother Neil Jones?

NEIL Jones is the long-lost half-brother of Tulisa Contostavlos.

In 2013, he came into the public eye when he was reunited with the former N-Dubz singer, X Factor judge and I'm A Celeb contestant.

Who is Neil Jones?

Neil Jones was born in 1978 after his mother Shirley had a brief relationship with Tulisa’s father Plato, who was the keyboard player for the pop band Mungo Jerry.

Shirley moved to Cyprus after marrying a Greek Cypriot named Andy when Neil was four, where he grew up with two younger brothers.

His journey to discovering his celeb half-sister began when he was 14.

Neil overheard a conversation containing a life-changing truth: the man who had raised him was not his biological dad, but his adoptive father.

Revelation

This revelation set him on a path to uncover his true family history, a quest that would eventually lead him to Tulisa.

But it wasn't until he was 16 that he confronted his mum about it.

Neil told the Mirror: “I asked mum why I hadn’t been told. She said she was very young at the time and that she did what she thought was best.

“I asked her if she ever had any ­intention of telling me and she said no.

"I remember lots of arguments with my mum. It was a very angry time.”

Private detective

Neil was back in the UK, aged 35, with a wife named Claire and two daughters of his own when he found out he was part of a famous family.

Neil explained: “I went on the internet and found a private detective who did a search.

“She came back to me in less than 24 hours with the results.

"She said she had found my dad and that she was shaking because she had never had a case like mine before.

“She said ‘You have a sister who is ­Tulisa and your cousin is Dappy'.

"I think my exact words back then were, ‘Is this some kind of sick joke?’

“I was in shock. I had seen her on The X Factor and Claire was in the middle of reading her autobiography.

“Claire found a picture of Plato on the internet and we were like two peas in a pod. I knew he was my dad.

“The private investigator gave me my dad’s number. I left a message and he called me back on the Saturday morning.

"We both cried and he told me he’d been looking for me for years. He kept saying he loved me and I arranged to see him the next day.”

Then he got a call from his half-sister Tulisa.

“She said she was pleased to hear my voice at last and said I sounded like a geezer, which is what she always thought I would sound like,” Neil joked.

“She was very down to earth and we clicked straight away. I told her about my Greek ­Cypriot family and growing up in Cyprus.”

Meeting

The next day Neil travelled from Northampton to London to meet his estranged father, before going on to meet his sister in her dressing room at a party she was performing at.

“I introduced her to Claire and our daughters; my eldest couldn’t believe it,” said Neil.

After her set, Tulisa invited them back to her luxurious £6million mansion where they continued catching up.

Neil said: “We chatted endlessly and even play-fought like any siblings would.

“We discovered so many similarities — even trivial things like our mutual dislike of darkness.”

They stayed up talking until around 2.30am.

The following morning, Neil woke Tulisa up and they looked through childhood photos together.

They have been in touch ever since.