Tulisa replaced Cheryl Cole as a judge for the eighth series of The X Factor. Tulisa mentored the Groups category, which included Little Mix. Despite three of her four acts being eliminated in the first five weeks of the competition, Little Mix went on to become the most successful girl band in The X Factor history, avoiding the final showdown every week and winning the show in the process. Tulisa returned for the ninth series in 2012. Tulisa mentored the "Girls", a category made up of female contestants aged 16–27, which included Lucy Spraggan and Ella Henderson. Tulisa did not join the tenth series of the show in 2013 and was replaced by Sharon Osbourne. The singer briefly returned to The X Factor for its eleventh series as Louis Walsh's guest judge during the judges' houses stage in Bermuda. She also appeared on the first night of the final temporarily filling in for Mel B who was ill.
In March 2012, a six-minute sex tape of Tulisa and her former boyfriend Justin Edwards emerged on the internet. Tulisa was granted an injunction that legally blocks the distribution of the tape. In the aftermath she recorded a video response on her YouTube account, stating that she was both heartbroken and devastated by Edwards' release of the video. In July, she settled with Edwards but continued to pursue action against Edwards' former manager Chris Herbert, who had his job as a consultant on The X Factor suspended.
Tulisa released her solo album, The Female Boss, on 3 December 2012, for which she began working on earlier that year. She described the album as having "a track for every mood," with songs meant for parties, big ballads and "UK urban music." The first single released from the album was "Young", released in April and accompanied by a promotional video filmed in Miami. The song charted at number five on the Irish Singles Chart and number one in the UK. September saw the release of the second single "Live It Up". The song debuted at number 11 in the UK. Around this time, Tulisa released an autobiography titled Honest: My Story So Far. Tulisa's third solo single "Sight of You" was released together with the album to mostly negative reviews and charted lower than expected at number 18. The album itself received negative reviews and charted at number 35. In January 2013, Tulisa stated that the album campaign had finished and that no further singles would be released.
Released in November 2012 Britney Spears and will.i.am's single "Scream & Shout" was originally co-written by Tulisa with Jean Baptiste and recorded under the title "I Don't Give a Fuck". The track was intended for Tulisa's debut album. However, the producer of the track, Lazy Jay, did not want Tulisa to have the song and gave it to will.i.am, who re-wrote the song with Spears in mind. The song became a hit, peaking at number one in the UK and number three in the US. Despite Tulisa's vocals still being heard on "Scream & Shout", she was not credited with co-writing the song upon its release, which prevented her from collecting any royalties. Tulisa filed a lawsuit against will.i.am and won in 2018, entitling her to 10% of publishing rights.