My first meeting with Rita Ora takes place in quite exceptional circumstances. No matter how people perceive her — and best believe, they have varied views: a formidably piped pop star, the bubbly X Factor presenter, a semi-naked tabloid party girl or new wife of Academy Award-winning director Taika Waititi — today she has left all her frills at home.
Ora, 33, is listening to the stories of women and children supported by Buttle UK’s initiative, Chances for Children, as part of the Evening Standard’s Winter Survival Appeal. The charity provides grants for children and young people who have suffered trauma and crisis. Many have escaped abusive situations. She is here ‘to discover stories and shine a light where I can on people who deserve a chance’, she says. And so the red carpet starlet is sitting in the playroom of a women’s refuge house, the largest in London and currently home to 21 families. Kids’ paintings are blue-tacked on walls, little duffle coats hang on pegs and a wooden play kitchen stands on one side.
