Troubled Tulisa has revealed her scorn for the music industry - branding the business “a big game” and a “big fat ugly cow”.
And her father has told how he fears for the 24-year-old following her arrest on suspicion of supplying cocaine.
Tulisa, axed as a judge on telly hit X Factor weeks ago, discussed her attitude to her fame and fortune during a series of meetings with undercover Sun reporters.
Within minutes of meeting our team in America, where she hopes to launch a Hollywood acting career, she sat in a swish hotel suite and took a swipe at the music biz.
Concerned ... Plato Contostavlos was devastated by the news of Tulisa's arrest
“It’s all a big game. I call the industry a big fat ugly cow,” the former N-Dubz singer said on our video.
And Tulisa insisted she was desperate to move on from the fame X Factor had brought her.
She added: “I want to get out of that. I want to get away from that.
“I’m kind of like almost gagging for an opportunity to go. I don’t want to do that any more - but I have a £6million mortgage to pay.”
Meanwhile dad Plato Contostavlos last night told of his dismay after Tulisa’s sensational arrest, which followed allegations in The Sun last Sunday that she acted as a go-between in an £800 drug deal.
Tulisa and friend Mike GLC, 35, were quizzed last Tuesday at London’s Belgravia police station after we handed cops our dossier of evidence. Both were later freed on bail.
Pals say Tulisa has refused to drink or eat much since the allegations appeared and sits chain-smoking in her £6million Hertfordshire mansion - rocking back and forth.
Plato, 53, said tearfully: “I was devastated when I heard it - that’s my child. I was hurt badly.
“I just thought, ‘What’s this - what are you doing? Have you had a drink too many and you’re starting to talk rubbish’?
“All I know is that Tulisa was on the news and I went, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this’.”
He added: “I fear for Tulisa and her career and I’m trying to reach out to her so she can succeed again.
“I’m worried as a father about the people she’s hanging about with. Any father on the planet would have fears - but I know she’ll pull through because she has strong family.”
Plato, a keyboard player with Seventies band Mungo Jerry, said he watched news of Tulisa’s arrest on Sky TV with her frail grandparents Tula, 88, and Spiros, 89.
And he admitted Tulisa’s granny was so shocked that she flew into a hysterical panic attack so severe that she had to be restrained.
Plato, who has a house in North London, said: “They live with me now and I look after them. My dad, her grandpa, isn’t well at all.
“I was devastated watching the news, but my mum did the crying for me. There was so much panic that I didn’t have time to cry.
“There was no time for me to cry because I had to sort everybody out.
“Mum was just watching the news and she saw it on there and she misunderstood that her granddaughter was taking drugs.
“I said, ‘No, mum, your granddaughter doesn’t touch drugs’, and I had to calm her down.
“I said, ‘Maybe it’s friends - maybe it’s friends who are around her’. She was hysterical - she went into a massive panic.
“I had to calm her down and explain the situation that your granddaughter ain’t taking drugs - it’s not about her taking drugs.
“She went mad and that’s when I had to jump in to stop her.
“She took a fit - a proper fit - a Greek fit, and they are the worst. She is properly old-fashioned.”
Tulisa has confessed in her autobiography that while growing up in North London she fell in with a bad gang, got into fights, stole and had underage sex.
Plato said: “She was always with ghetto kids because they were always rapping and she loved that music. So all her mates were always ‘ghetto’.” But he insisted he was not worried about his daughter’s current lifestyle as he is convinced she has never been a serious drug-user.
Plato said: “I know she doesn’t touch drugs. I can understand if your child does drugs, then you’d fall on the floor. I’d want to kill myself if she really did take drugs.
“I’d be so devastated, because I’m so anti-coke, heroin, powders and pills.
“But she’s not taking drugs. I swear on my dead brother’s grave - she does not touch drugs.”
When asked if he was aware of Tulisa ever taking cocaine, Plato exclaimed: “She’s never, ever, ever. Oh my God, no!” Plato added that the only time he knew of his daughter taking drugs was when she told him she had made herself sick by smoking a joint when she was a young teenager.
He recalled: “She came home to me when she was 13½ and said she’d had a smoke and vomited. I said, ‘It’ll teach you a lesson’.
“In my house, nothing was allowed - no smoking cigarettes and no alcohol. I just didn’t want that for my child. We talked about drugs from when she was a kid. I told her they’re no good for you, they’re useless - rubbish.
“I’ve warned her off since she was a baby. Sometimes I’d walk on the streets and you’d see somebody out of his head and I’d say, ‘Look, that’s from drugs - that’s from alcohol’.
“I would always show her signs that this is no good and tell her, ‘Stay away from this’. And she did, and she has done.”
Tulisa made it big despite her mum being diagnosed with psychiatric problems including bipolar disorder which led to her being sectioned when the star was five. She also suffered bullying, depression, anorexia, left school without qualifications, had an abusive boyfriend, self-harmed and twice tried to kill herself as a teen.
Plato said: “She had to grow up faster than any other child around her. She’s had such a tough life.
“But she’s crossed the barrier and hasn’t touched drugs and has become successful.”
Plato and Tulisa have not spoken since falling out three years ago. But he revealed that her arrest has made him desperate for a reconciliation so he can give his daughter a “hug and a kiss”.
He said: “I want to get back into her life. I’d just hug her and kiss her. That’s why I’m doing this through the paper - to remind her that her dad is there, to reach out.
“But all my family are helping her out because she’s down. She is very strong, but obviously she is very, very upset.”
Plato said Tulisa had been pouring her heart out to gran Tula. He said: “She talks to her grandmother all the time - her gran is the love of her life.
“As far as Tulisa is concerned, she’s done nothing wrong.”
Tulisa was last night keeping a low profile inside her gated home, surrounded by close friends.
Threat probed
A DEATH threat sent to The Sun investigator who broke the story which led to Tulisa’s drug arrest is being probed by police.
Scotland Yard detectives have identified a man who they have reason to believe sent a chilling email.
They are now poised to arrest the man and quiz him over the threats, sent by iPhone from a personal account to the reporter. An email sent at 1.59am last Thursday warned: “I’m going to kill you bitch”.
There is no suggestion that Tulisa or Mike GLC were aware of the threat or had any involvement in it.
The Sun is not naming the police suspect for legal reasons.
Last night a Scotland Yard detective said: “We take threats like this very seriously and will take immediate and appropriate action.”
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