Tulisa - The Biography Read Free Page A

conversation they had ever had. His daughter, who had already been through so much, was distraught. ‘I could see how sad she looked but I had just had enough,’ he said. ‘I just needed my own space.’ For Ann, and therefore for Tulisa, this parting had severe consequences. ‘My dad left home and it triggered one of her episodes,’ said Tulisa of her mother’s response. ‘One minute she’d look all mournful as if someone had died, the next she’d be angry and aggressive, smashing cupboards and shouting. I wasn’t allowed to turn on the TV because she thought it might harm us – the same with the hot water.’
    Life was becoming genuinely intolerable for Tulisa. She was not even 10 years of age and yet was having to face the most difficult of experiences. To watch, at the age of nine, one’s parents split was enough in itself. However, she had also seen her mother sectioned to psychiatric care and had witnessed at first hand the erratic behaviour that had led to that move. ‘It was impossible to have a conversation with my mum because she’d drift off into her own little world, but at the same time she didn’t want me to go out and leave her so I couldn’t even escape to a friend’s house. I was like a prisoner in the flat with her. Inevitably, she went into hospital again and I stayed with my mum’s older sister, Louise. She had children of her own and it was felt she was more able to look after a young girl.’ Tulisa spoke to The Sunday Times about what life was like for her in the aftermath of her parents’ divorce. ‘Me and my mum spent a year in a one-bed council flat,’ she said. ‘There was no shower – we’d have to run across the hall, so it was far from glamorous. Don’t get me wrong, my dad did his utmost to support me. He worked, but he was never rich. Most days, I would live off £3.’
    Around the same time, Tulisa changed her appearance, as she began to become aware of the attraction of boys. ‘I grew out my horrible fringe and got my ears pierced, pulled my hair back off my face, put on a shorter skirt and undid my top button – and that was it: I found I got a lot more male attention,’ she said. Not that her rebellious ways could conceal the sweet, frightened girl underneath it all. Nor could it entirely destroy her already notable spirit. Take, for instance, the impression young Tulisa first made on her stepmother, Mel. ‘She was a lovely little girl,’ Mel told the Daily Mail . ‘I remember her telling jokes, mimicking members of her family. She was a happy-go-lucky character.’ Tulisa remains a fine mimic to this day. ‘There didn’t seem to be any ill-feeling about me being in her father’s life,’ said Mel. ‘They were very close and she appeared happy to be around him, happy to be in his presence. You could see there was definitely a bond there – she adored her father. She was polite and well-mannered – very much so.’ Tulisa’s father and his new wife took her on day trips to the zoo and once for a weekend holiday in Wales. She won a singing competition at a Butlins holiday camp, performing Laura Branigan’s hit song ‘Gloria’ to great acclaim.
    Plato wanted to gain joint custody of Tulisa, who he was convinced would be better off with him. So he encouraged Mel to marry him so his legal case for custody would be stronger. ‘He put the squeeze on me and said it would help his cause to have a stable environment for Tulisa to come to every weekend,’ Mel told the Daily Mail . ‘I felt I was being rushed into things, that there had been no time for the relationship to develop properly. I was only 25. But my own father had been schizophrenic and I understood the effects of mental illness on a child. I went along with it, despite huge doubts.’ She said Plato told her the day after the wedding that she would have to return to work straightaway, as she needed to bring income into the home because he ‘wasn’t built for nine-to-five.’ His bid for joint