Rita Ora says she has dreamed of getting married since she was a child, amid reports she had a secret summer wedding to film-maker Taika Waititi.
The pair, who have been together for just over a year, were rumoured to have wed in an intimate London ceremony.
In an interview with Louis Theroux to be screened next week but recorded before the reported wedding, Rita – who turns 32 today – says: “Getting engaged has definitely been a conversation. I’m happy.
“Getting married is something I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid, and he definitely is a great human. He’s awesome.
“I’ve reached a point where I’m very much contained and settled.”
The Masked Singer judge adds: “I love being in love. I’m an extremely passionate person when it comes to love.”
New Zealand director Taika, 47, who won an Oscar in 2020 for wartime comedy drama Jojo Rabbit, tells how they met when Twilight actor Robert Pattinson brought Rita to his house.
Taika says: “We got to chatting and for the next three-and-a-half years we were just good mates. We were in different relationships, both of us. It was a good friendship and then we decided to ruin it.
“I love the fact that we both work hard, we’ve both got our own jobs and are independent and we’re best friends.”
Singer Rita has been at the top of her game for over a decade.
She found fame with Jay-Z ’s Roc Nation label and went on to have 13 top 10 hits – more than any other British female singer.
Rita has also become a household name as a TV talent show panellist and has landed lucrative ad campaigns and modelling contracts.
But the star, whose family fled war-torn Kosovo in 1990 to live in London as refugees, always fears failure.
She says: “When you come from nothing, you always have that fear that you’re going to end up with nothing again.
“So when I had a taste of some sort of success, I thought, ‘I can’t fail’. I’m doing this not just for myself.” Rita is very close to her mum Vera, dad Nik, sister Elena, who works as her manager, and brother Don.
She says she often turns to her family when things get too much.
Mum Vera says: “There are times when she was really stressed and I got worried. It was heartbreaking.”
Having been scrutinised over her love life and for her rule-breaking 2020 lockdown birthday party, Rita admits fame can be tough. But she loves being in LA, where she gets less attention than in London, where fans camped outside her home.
Rita recalls: “There was one incident where there was a person who just arrived with suitcases outside my house and said that I’d promised them that I would leave everything and live a life with them.
“We had to put pictures up of them at all my shows so security was aware.”
In her youth, Rita went to the Sylvia Young Theatre School then became an intern at a recording studio where she sang whenever she could.
She admits to rebelling as a teen after her mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. Rita says: “I was a wild child but I wasn’t disrespectful. I didn’t know what to do if my mum wasn’t going to be around.”
But the star says she now feels everything has finally come together.
“Being in the industry for over 10 years, I’ve suddenly felt a sense of calmness, and maybe that has a lot to do with my personal life, but also my confidence musically,” she says. “I’m very happy to be where I’m at.”
Louis Theroux Interviews… Rita Ora, Tuesday, BBC2 9.30pm
