Contostavlos, Now 38, Lost Her House and Job, and Says Her Career Never Fully Recovered

Tulisa Contostavlos, the N-Dubz and X Factor star, is campaigning for tougher press regulation after a 2013 Sun on Sunday sting by reporter Mazher Mahmood, known as the Fake Sheikh, derailed her career. Mahmood, posing as a producer, allegedly offered her a £3.5m movie role and later claimed she arranged to sell him cocaine; the trial collapsed when he was found to have lied, and he was sentenced to 15 months for conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Contostavlos, now 38, lost her house and job, and says her career never fully recovered.

She has since traveled to Egypt and Peru, quit smoking, started therapy, and is writing a fantasy novel. "This isn't some vendetta, she said, adding that she wrote a list of her "greatest self" and began implementing it. "I was like, right, let's try to do something.