‘Don’t make me choose between you & the show’
Wednesday 31 August 2011
She’s faced a battle to win over the public since replacing Cheryl Cole as a judge on The X Factor, but Tulisa Contostavlos is also dealing with a private heartache as her relationship with her boyfriend, N-Dubz bandmate Richard “Fazer” Rawson, hits a bad patch.
The couple, who are rumoured to have been on/off for years, are struggling as her hectic show schedule means they’re barely seeing each other.
And pals tell Closer Fazer’s feeling so abandoned, he’s warned Tulisa: “Don’t let it be a case of me or the show.”
“Fazer and Tulisa have gone from spending every moment together to not seeing each other for days,” a friend says.
“He says that if this is the way it’s going to be, it could make things tough. Things came to a head recently when she had a row with him on the phone while she was backstage. She’s tough, but was on the verge of tears. All she wants is for him to support her. ”
Despite never going public with their romance, Tulisa, 23 – who split from ex-fiancé DJ Adam Bailey in 2009 – and Fazer have been linked since last summer and holidayed together in the Caribbean in January.
The pal says: “Tulisa’s under pressure to give a stunning performance on the show – and the main man in her life right now is Simon Cowell. This is her big opportunity. She never thought she’d have to consider choosing between her career and love.”
Fazer, 24, isn’t a fan of the show. He said last week: “You come in as a nobody, then the next day you sell over a million records and you haven’t necessarily done any of the work to go with it. It’s weird.”
Tulisa faced more agony last week, when a conman tried to sell a sex film of her for £500,000. Her spokesman said it was “100 per cent fake.”
By Victoria Richards