will have to cope with one of her biggest fears in the jungle.

The N-Dubz singer, 36, is competing in the latest series of ITV's as she hopes to be crowned Queen of the Jungle. The icon has long been in the public eye, having risen to fame as a rapper in her teens before starring as a judge on The .

But away from the glitz and glamour, Tulisa has experienced a lot of heartbreak and has struggled with drugs, depression and bullying. During her school years, the songwriter was bullied mercilessly after cruel classmates found out her mother suffered from schizophrenia, a serious mental health condition.

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In a 2012 interview with , Tulisa's father Plato revealed how she would sob for days over taunts about her mum, Ann, who was in and out of hospital due to the illness. He said: "My daughter was horribly bullied. It was awful. Children would scream, 'Your mum's a loony'. Tulisa was about five years old when it first started. She would come home crying all the time."

Her mother's condition meant that Ann would slip in and out of terrifying psychotic episodes, leaving her unable to look after herself. Because Plato and Ann split when Tulisa was nine, there were times when she was left to fend for herself at home. In 2011, Tulisa opened up about her struggles caring for a parent with mental health issues on BBC's documentary, Tulisa: My Mum and Me.

Plato told The : "She went through a lot, that's why she has become who she is, it made her the success she is. It's incredible that she has achieved what she has considering everything. Her childhood was unbelievably tough." But bullying was just one of the many obstacles Tulisa had to overcome during her troubled upbringing in Camden, North London.

The strain of her mother's condition meant Tulisa was often depressed during her teenage years. In an interview in 2011, she said: "I'm a strong girl but I still suffered with depression." She wrote in her 2012 autobiography, Honest, that her mum's illness "completely overshadowed" her childhood and meant her earliest memories are not "happy ones".

In her memoir, Tulisa explained that she has a strong fear of the dark, which stems from her childhood worry of being abandoned. She wrote: "My aversion to being alone has never really gone away, however, and to this day I still have a massive phobia about sleeping on my own in the dark. If I'm sharing a bed with someone, I don't mind darkness, but if I'm on my own, I have to have a lamp on.

"As I said, I slept in the same room as my parents until I was about 10, so when Mum or Dad would put me to bed, they'd always leave the light on until they came to bed later. Consequently, I was never on my own when it was dark, and I guess that's what I got used to."

She added: "I like to have someone around me always, even if we're not talking or doing anything in particular. I like to know there's someone else present. I'm certain that stems from my childhood fears of being abandoned." In the jungle, Tulisa will be forced to join her fellow campmates to sleep under the stars and out in the wild.

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