Tulisa deserves her apology
The kind who at 26 years old still adores (and epically fails at) rapping along to the trio's teen-ghetto lyrics and dances around my bedroom in nothing but my pants. Imaginary mic included. FUN!
Given my old age, I still haven't fully worked out why I resonate with the pretend gangsters from Camden Town so much. I'll blame it on my inner tear-away teen...
But contrary to the heaps of criticism that the band's received over the years, I've always believed Tulisa, Dappy and Fazer have been good role models to young peeps in the UK, despite never being far from scandal - with Tulisa's sex tape being the latest in a long list of PR nightmares.
Because that's exactly why real girls can relate to Tulisa. How many of us are whiter than white? High horses, please...
I can't even begin to imagine the humiliation the X Factor judge must have felt when at the height of her career she found out that her ex boyfriend, Justin Edwards, someone she entrusted intimately, had betrayed her by leaking their sex tape online for millions of strangers to see.
And I had nothing but absolute admiration for the way she handled the scandal in its aftermath.
Instead of turning to a polished PR to make a statement, she bravely took to YouTube herself in the midst of all the media heat.
With her hair scraped back and wearing hardly any make-up she spoke from the heart, saying: 'When you share an intimate moment with someone that you love, you care about and you trust, you never imagine for one minute that that footage may at any point be shared with the rest of the UK or the rest of the people around the world.
'It's a pretty tough time for me, but I don't feel I should be the one to take the heat for it.
'This is something he took upon himself to put the footage online, and now he's sitting in silence and pretending that it's not him on the tape when it is.
'I'm not going sit here and be violated or taken advantage of.'
Touche!
So I was well chuffed to hear the news that at the High Court today Tulisa, sporting brand-new blonde locks, finally received a much-deserved apology from Justin following a legal settlement about the video's public release.
Triumphantly, she announced in a statement that she was 'a stronger, wiser young woman' after the experience. And surely that's the point?
Like she says in her No 1 hit song We Are Young, we all make mistakes - the point is to learn from them and try and better ourselves in life, just like Tulisa has done, with her newfound X Factor fame and solo success.
And I love the fact she's hopped straight on a jet to Ibiza to celebrate her 24th birthday. Ex boyfriend, who?
So huge congrats on your latest achievement, lady. You can hold your head up high. Just don't make the same mistake again, eh?
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