Rita Ora is a worldwide, multi number one selling recording artist, singer, songwriter, actress and a household name in the UK since her stint as a judge on BBC’s The Voice. At just 32-years-old Rita has acquired a net worth of £25 million, a £4 million home, five cars, including a Mercedes ML Class and a Cadillac XTS. Money aside, as Rita claims to not be into material possessions…. Rita has finally found her happy ever after. In August 2022 she walked down the aisle to her “soul mate” ‘Thor : Love and Thunder’ director Taika Waititi, aged 47.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Rita was born Miss Rita Sahatciu on November 26th 1990 in Pristina, Yugoslavia to parents Vera Bajraktari, a psychiatrist and Besnik Sahatciu an economist and pub owner. Moving to London aged one, Rita began performing from a young age and graduated from the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School, which produced numerous British pop stars such as Emma Bunton. Rising to fame debuting on DJ fresh number one single ‘Hot Right Now’ in 2012, Rita then released her own debut album entitled ‘Ora’ which also made it to the top of the charts, not only with the album but with two number one singles ‘RIP’ and ‘How We Do’. She also achieved a chart record for the “Most Top Ten Singles by a Female Artist” with 13 in the top ten, overtaking musical icons Shirley Bassey and Petula Clark, who each lay claim to 12 top ten hits each.
CHEQUERED LOVE LIFE
Prior to meeting her husband New Zealand-born Waititi in 2021, Rita Ora was linked to a whole host of celebs including reality TV star Rob Kardashian, ‘Spiderman’ actor Andrew Garfield, producer Andrew Watt and ‘One Direction’ heartthrob Liam Payne. Rita also dated Scottish superstar DJ Calvin Harris and they released the smash hit “I Will Never Let You Down” together in 2013. Rita proclaimed at the time that this was the very first time she had ever been in love, but her world was quickly turned upside down when Harris publicly embarrassed Rita by announcing their split on social media before telling her – after tabloid pics of Rita partying with other men surfaced.
Broken-hearted Rita then had her world further torn apart as Harris placed a music ban on her from performing any songs they had made together. He finally lifted the music ban in 2018 and Rita was set to be full steam ahead on the final production and release of her long awaited second album ‘Phoenix’ when tragedy hit. Rita’s good friend, inspiration and musical collaborator, Swedish superstar DJ Avicci, devastatingly took his own life that year. Rita had worked with Avicci on his last track, “Let’s Be Lonely Together” and she has always been torn on whether she could have done more to save one of her best friends lives.
OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
Despite her hardships Rita still managed to release two multi-platinum albums, breaking into the tough world of acting with her performance as Mia in the ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ franchise and touring worldwide.
It has not been all plain sailing as the star has made headlines for all the wrong reasons too. In 2018 with her controversial song ‘Girls’, where she proclaims that “sometimes, she just wants to kiss girls”. ‘Girls’ has been used by many women as a song about empowerment but the LGBT community found the track to be insensitive to bisexuality and Rita was pulled apart. She apologised to anyone who had been offended and explained that: “I am not one-sided, I’m open-minded… I am never going to hide it.”
In 2020 she suffered another major backlash for flouting lockdown rules by having a 30th birthday party at a restaurant in West London. It was discovered by the UK media and despite her public apology, Rita has had to endure a lot of hatred over the bash attended by 10 pals including model Cara Delevingne. “I still feel embarrassed,” she revealed. “It’s really hard for me to talk about it. I just wish I had made a different choice.”
After years of heartbreak and grief, Rita is finally with the husband that she has always wanted – she finally met up with Waititi again in Australia in 2021 at a friend’s party and they both knew they had definitely found “the one,” after a friendship lasting 10 years. And further good news in Ora and Waititi’s lives is they are trying for a baby. Unfortunately, the couple cannot conceive naturally and are going through rounds of IVF but they hope to bring good news ‘babywise’ soon. And there is the much anticipated third album on the cards this year. Rita hints at it being November 2023, her birth month. Wife, pop star, actress, soon-to-be mother… is there anything else for Rita to cross off her list?
