And she says being a judge has "softened" her image, winning her new fans. The fans of cole want to know about cheryl cole x factor.
In a revealing interview from her judge's house base in Greece, Tulisa dismissed reports that Cheryl could be parachuted back onto the panel in her place.
She told TV Biz: "I can 100 per cent reassure fans I'll be sitting in that judge's chair in the final. Cheryl and I talk and laugh at the rumours about her. We've sat down and had the conversation at her birthday party.
"People are going to make up rumour after rumour. It's been intense."
Of her friendship with Cheryl, she said: "I've not spoken to her for a bit because she's been in LA. But we'll meet when she gets back. We are cool."
Tulisa said she had been supported by boss Cowell — even though he thought she would be difficult. She said: "He calls me Trouble, and likes what I'm doing.
"I'd like to come back next year and the year after." She added: "Simon has a very dry sense of humour. He doesn't have to sit there and go, 'You are amazing' and 'You are doing great'. He'll just send a text with a simple thing like 'Trouble's taking over' and you get it."
The judge's house stage begins on ITV1 this evening. And Tulisa told how the show had released her from her hardcore N-Dubz image.
She said: "Being on The X Factor has made me softer.
"I hope fans see I'm not some chav who swears and beats people up."
She said: "It's brought out more of an emotional side of me. I'm less kind of like, 'I don't need to care what people think'."
But she said she had learned to shrug off attacks from people such as singer George Gerasimou, who called her a "scumbag" at auditions.
She said: "It was nasty but it's nothing I hadn't heard ten years ago. When I got the job, people were telling me on Twitter, 'You don't deserve it'. I thought, 'Oh my God half the public hates me'. Then once the shows started I couldn't believe how people embraced me. Even fans of Cheryl said, 'We like you'."
Tulisa has to whittle her eight groups down to four. And she said having pal Jessie J with her in Greece was a godsend.
She said: "At one stage I was leaning towards one act and Jessie said a couple of pointers to me and when I was watching the second performance I went, 'Oh yeah'."
Tulisa vowed to keep working with her groups, saying: "I want to be fully involved in their career even when the show is over."
She is not interested in a style war with fellow judge Kelly Rowland. She said: "I only care about winning. Fashion? Turn the spotlight on Gary and Louis. They should come out one week in dresses!"
But Tulisa — who shares a bag of chips with Gary Barlow on tonight's Jonathan Ross show — admitted the pressure to look good had started to get to her.
She said: "If you're on TV in front of 12 million people, you want to look nice."
