Rita Ora has revealed she feared her now-husband, director Taika Waititi, wasn’t ready to marry her after his reaction to her surprise proposal. The 34-year-old singer said the filmmaker was baffled when he walked into a hotel room in Palm Springs, California, filled with heart-shaped balloons and cake, prompting a moment of doubt before he ultimately said yes.
© Samir HusseinRevealing the intimate proposal details to TV presenter Davina McCall on a recent episode of the Begin Again podcast, the “RIP” singer shared, “I got the [wedding] bands made, I didn’t want anything too flashy.I got some bands made that have something really personal attached to them inside, that only we know about. I just did the whole thing."
“We were in LA I rented out a hotel room in Palm Springs. A really nice fancy one, filled it up with balloons and cake. [There were] heart-shaped balloons and a heart-shaped cake, because I’m basically doing what I would have wanted for mine.”
© Jeff Kravitz“I’m holding the cake, like, holding a bloody cake, and the balloons are all around us. He walks into the room, and he’s like, ‘What the hell, is it Valentine’s Day?’ I’m like ‘Nooooo!’ So anyway, I get down on one knee...“[He said], ‘What is happening?’”
At that moment, Rita said she wasn’t sure if the Thor: Love and Thunder director would say yes.
© Daniele VenturelliThe former Voice UK coach, who began dating Taika in 2021, continued, “Ma“, be he doesn’t want it. Maybe he’s OK to just be in a relationship, which was fine with me, too. But I just wanted to lock him down. And I did!"
“And he said, ‘Absolutely! What the hell, get up!’”
© OLI SCARFFThe smitten couple, who first met at a barbecue at Taika’s house in 2018, the same year he divorced Chelsea Winstanley, tied the knot just weeks after the proposal, in an intimate ceremony in Los Angeles, California, with a small group of friends.
In an interview with Vogue, Taika said in 2023, “There were about eight people there, just close friends and family, and parents on Zoom.”
