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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Maanya Sachdeva

Rita Ora explains why she and Taika Waititi kept their ‘perfect’ wedding private

Getty Images for MTV

Rita Ora has explained why she and Taika Waititi kept their wedding private, and revealed new details about how the New Zealand-based filmmaker proposed to Ora.

After months of keeping their nuptials secret, the 32-year-old British singer confirmed she had married Waititi during an appearance on Heart Radio Breakfast this January.

At the time, she described the occasion as “perfect” and “exactly how I wanted”.

In an interview with GLAMOUR magazine, Ora said she was freaked out by the idea of having a big wedding.

The “You Only Love Me” singer added: “Some women like to feel that real special attention that day. And everyone’s different. And for me – I think with my job, it is all… it’s very attention driven – I wanted to keep it private because my life and my career aren’t.”

Ora told the publication the couple planned their wedding in “two to three days” between working on albums so that Waititi’s children could also be there.

The Thor: Love and Thunder director has two daughters with his first wife, producer Chelsea Winstanley. The ex-couple got married in 2011 before divorcing in 2018.

“It was either then or we had to wait for ages. I didn’t want to do it without my stepkids there. So, we just figured it out and we did it. And it was perfect,” she said, adding her parents attended the ceremony virtually on Zoom.

Elsewhere, Ora said Waititi didn’t get down on one knee when he proposed to her. “It was more like, ‘I want to marry you. Let’s just do it’,” she recalled.

Ora gave fans a first look at her engagement ring from Waititi on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

It features a massive emerald stone, set in a diamond pavé surrounded by another gold band.

“He did good,” she said as she smiled, before admitting that she “may have” helped her now-husband in picking out the rock.

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