X Factor Tulisa: I stole bags, took drugs and lost my virginity aged 14

By Paul Revoir

Last updated at 2:13 AM on 1st August 2011


Her reputation for telling it like it is attracted Simon Cowell’s eye and landed her a starring role on the X Factor panel.

But the music mogul may now be questioning his judgment following Tulisa Contostavlos’s latest interview, in which she admitted stealing handbags, taking drugs and losing her virginity at the age of just 14.

The new judge said: ‘When I was 12 I wanted to have fun. I didn’t want to go back to the one-bedroom council flat, crying myself to sleep at night. I became a lot gobbier and had my first boyfriend.’

Revelations: Judge Tulisa Contostavios made her controversial comments in an interview

And when asked how long she waited before she had sex, she added: ‘I can’t say too long. I was about to turn 15. I was one of the lucky ones to keep my virginity for as long as I did.’

She said she knew pupils who were having sex ‘in the toilets at the age of 12 in break time’.

The N-Dubz star also admitted wearing, at just nine years old, a short skirt with her top button undone, saying she ‘got a lot more male attention’.

Mogul: What will Simon Cowell think of Tulisa's comments?

Miss Contostavlos, now 23, will effectively be acting as a mentor to a large number of teenagers on The X Factor.

In the Sunday Times interview, she told how, as a teenager, she was targeted by gangs of girls in North London.

She said: ‘By the time I was 15, to go to my friend’s house in Kentish Town, I used to walk around with a baseball bat or knife on me, because of fear of being attacked by 15 girls.

‘If someone came up to me in a nightclub and slapped me in the face, I would punch them back. That’s who I am. That’s what I’m about.’

The Camden-born singer said she then got in with the toughest crowd in the area after she smoked drugs with them.

She added: ‘I smoked weed when I was a kid and got into fights. We did pinch a couple of handbags. I wasn’t part of a girl gang, though. We were just a group of troublesome chicks. Obviously, we were consuming so much weed and alcohol, we were going loopy anyway.’

Last night Tory MP Nadine Dorries criticised the organisers of The X Factor, saying: ‘Providing strong mentors who young, impressionable people can look up to should be what X Factor is and what it’s about. The choice of Tulisa, unfortunately falls way short of the mark.’

Miss Contostavlos’s comments come just weeks after her father, Plato, claimed he has no idea where Tulisa’s street girl image comes from, and in fact says she was a ‘well brought up girl’.

Street stars: Tulisa with her N-Dubz bandmates Dappy (left) and Fazer (right)

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2020957/X-Factor-Tulisa-I-stole-bags-took-drugs-lost-virginity-aged-14.html#ixzz1TlhmLxaD