Tulisa Contostavlos takes centre stage in glossy cover shoot for 'brutally honest and redemptive' memoir detailing her rise to fame and devastating fall from grace

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

Tulisa Contostavlos takes centre stage in a glossy new cover shoot - but this time it has nothing to do with N-Dubz, The X Factor or her stop-start solo career.
After a turbulent few years,Tulisa is preparing for the release of her new autobiography, the appropriately titled Judgement: Love, Trials and Tribulations.
And she is captured in profile on the cover of her imminent book - billed as a 'brutally honest and redemptive' memoir that documents her rise to prominence and subsequent fall from grace after being targeted by the disgraced 'Fake Sheikh', Mazher Mahmood.
The singer, 37, later admitted her life 'fell apart' following an elaborate sting that resulted in her being arrested on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs, an accusation she vehemently denied.
As the drama played out in court, Tulisa opted to keep a journal in which she detailed the toll her trial had taken on her personal life, and the devastating impact it had on her career.
Released by Blink Publishing for Bonnier Books UK, Judgement will be available to purchase from August 14.
'Since I was a child, I've been obsessed by storytelling. I loved reading books and writing my own stories,' she explains in an accompanying press release.
'I have always longed to write an incredible book from start to finish – a creation that was all mine.
'This book means the world to me as I've worked on it for years and now I honestly feel the time is right to tell my story, warts and all, entirely in my own words.
'I am so excited to be working with Ciara [Lloyd, Blink Publishing Director] and the team at Bonnier to share this book with readers everywhere.'
Publishing Director Lloyd added: 'When I read Tulisa's proposal, I knew instantly that I wanted to publish her.
'I remember the infamous 'Fake Sheikh' trial well and how unfairly Tulisa was treated, a story that highlighted the bias and misogyny in the press, and in our society.
'So, to give a voice to Tulisa and her story as well as showcase her phenomenal talent as a writer is a real privilege.
'This is the perfect redemption story for the original Female Boss, and I'm so proud to be publishing her at Blink.'
Mazher Mahmood, also known as the Fake Sheik, was jailed for 15 months for perverting the course of justice after duping Tulisa into buying cocaine while he posed as a film producer
In one notable extract from the book, Tulisa claims a police officer made obscene gestures towards her while she was on trial for an alleged drugs sting in 2014 at Southwark Crown Court.
She writes: 'I felt like an animal in a cage, for everyone's entertainment.'
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told Daily Mail: 'We are unaware of this allegation from 2016, which has not been reported to us.
'We would encourage the complainant to make a report so we can investigate.'
The impact of the trial also left Tulisa with PTSD, with the singer noting that if she had to go through all the coverage of her trial she would 'have a nervous breakdown.'
She told Cosmopolitan: 'There was, an actual, very serious [suicide] attempt. There was also this moment of real depression where I was driving in my car, hysterically crying, and there was so much trauma that I had an out of body experience.
'It was like my brain was going so nuts that I had to physically detach the two.'
Following the trial, Tulisa spent more than a decade out of the public eye after it was ruled the infamous Fake Sheikh had trapped her in the drug sting.
Mazher Mahmood, also known as the Fake Sheik, a former journalist for the Sun on Sunday was jailed for 15 months for perverting the course of justice by lying in court.