Rita Ora: I Proposed to my Husband Taika!

0:00This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible. Financial geniuses. Monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. You are the biggest selling female artist in the UK. and also you are the most solid, loyal person. I make a real effort to stay connected to people that I love. Any headline you can think of always trickles down to my parents when I feel like my family are being affected.

0:47That's what bothers me. I was turning 19 when I had my first record deal. The world was my oyster. With my new album, I just have this ambition to enjoy my sexuality. I want to rip my clothes off, obviously not physically. It's only growing older that gives you the confidence to be in your own skin? Taika, he's your soulmate. Oh, I'm so lucky. Robert Patterson is the reason why I met Taika. I don't think I've ever thanked him for it. Thank you. Is it true that you propose? Absolutely. This is girl power. Your mum, she had breast cancer. It was tough seeing something that you believe is always going to be there crumble in front of you.

1:25Look at you now. I have this ambition in life to just make the most of it. And maybe a family. Can I just say something, Rita?

1:38Wow. I mean, that was quite mad because I forgot I was working there for a moment. I forgot we were actually filming a podcast. It felt like I was just sat down with a mate. But what I really wanted to do was to show you real, Rita, because Rita's one of the hardest working, most loyal, funniest, most dedicated people I know. And I just loved, I loved talking to her and I hope you get as much out of it as I did. Oh, by the way, if you're listening, please can you give us a follow? That would be amazing. Okay.

2:27I'm so happy. We did it. We did it. We have made it. Do you know what I think is brilliant? So it's funny because I feel like I know you well. Yes, you do. And I've worked with you on The Masked Singer for many seasons. And yet there was so much about you that I didn't know. Really? Yeah. I feel like I've literally told you everything in between filming. Well, you know, the other thing I think is mad. Yeah. is that I don't think I knew that you are the biggest selling female artist in the UK. I had no idea about that. I also went to Spotify and looked at your top five most listened to tracks. Over half a billion listens each.

3:12Yeah. Not added up, like each. Oh, wow. It's like, I've got goosebumps talking about it, honestly. You're like, my friend's pretty cool. no idea but you're like oh mega i've stopped looking at the stats because it's almost as if like i've become my own competition which is great what do you mean by that it's almost like i look at things and the results of what i've done and then i try and beat them or accomplish them or make them the same and that is a slippery slope i love and i'm so proud of what i've done and i still am so proud of what's yet to come yeah but there's also that part of like can i do it again can i do it again and it just never ever stops so with all those incredible i would say accomplishments there is that inner voice that is like okay we have to do it again we have to do it again you You know what really, really, really surprised me?

4:13Yeah. Was, it's so beautiful, by the way. Well, hello. Like, good luck. I have had a village put me together today, Davina. I've just had me. Yes. That says a lot. But I did think I'm going short. Rita's going to look it. And you have a shorter hand going on. Also sock. I'm a best. Can I just say, I'm so feeling all the metal. Thank you. Yeah. I just felt like I need my hardware to come back. I'm going into my sexy era yes I mean with my album you've always been in your sexy era aw thank you yeah and obviously the song let's just talk about that this is like two girls catching up so many times your producers probably like you're doing too much it's not too fast slow down no but Heat is so so good thank you I love it the video is mega I'm having so much fun yeah I have this real like ambition in life to just try and make the most of it.

5:12And I think with my new album that I am putting out this year... When's it out? It's my fourth album. It's later in the year. I haven't actually released the name, title or the date yet, partially because I don't know exactly the date, as I keep changing my mind, but I have the album title. Because I always want to fix it or put something new in there or do something different. But I just have this real brave ambition to come out and enjoy my sexuality, be in my skin, be a woman and just like get my skin out there and feel free. Something came over me like during the two to three years that I had from my last record to now.

5:55Like I just felt like I can't explain it. It's like I want to rip my clothes off kind of. Obviously not physically, but like that's the energy I felt like I needed. And so with Heat, the new single, I think it's such a great introduction to the bigger world I'm creating because it's all about feeling sexy. I mean, the open the open lyric is sex on sight, which is basically like either give it to me now or I don't want it. Like that is what it means. and I think with that is a really great tone to set of like what I'm doing with my attitude and my personality like the person I've created for this album very direct very intentional confident proud bold fun colorful um optimistic but opinionated it's almost like I want to I want to be ignorant as in be proud of what I've done and and be the role of like the woman that I've earned to become yes but not be arrogant with it yes i think there's a really difference between those two yes there's a world where you can be ignorant without being mean and having that sense of just not friendliness but i what i think is amazing about you is that from really the press oh stories and the coverage and i will touch a little bit on this yeah i mean you've you've And what you've sprayed all to me many times during filmings is that people have got the wrong idea about you from stories that aren't correct.

7:29I think over the years you can't kind of reply. You have no right to reply because if you do, it fuels the fire. Yes, correct. And then it stays a story forever. And then it's interesting because I'm like, which story? You know what I mean? There's so many. I feel like I've had so many lives within the press. Like I've had moments of pure joy and bliss. I've had moments of like complete shredding me, you know, tearing me to parts, into pieces. And then they love me again. I mean, you never really know the mood, I would say, that the press, especially in the UK, are in. But now living abroad a bit more, it's funny because it's definitely a bigger, brighter world out there.

8:15Yeah. than what you feel when, I don't know, you're penalized in one, I would say, part of the world. And actually, it doesn't really travel as much as you think it does. And that the same people show up to your shows and pay tickets for your concerts. And, you know, hearsay is one thing, but I think resilience and persevering through like anything and showing up for the people although I've had your back since, I don't know, 2012 for me, that stands the test of time. I've always heard that saying. Actually, I watched this documentary, I don't know if you've seen it, with Monica Lewinsky, and she actually studies why bad press is so interesting to people.

8:59Like why things that are bad or something that someone's going through attracts and sort of almost lifts your endorphins. Why? because subconsciously they're just so happy that it's not them right oh thank god it's not me yeah relief it's that weird is that i know i thought that was interesting as well because underneath it all the stigma of the word selfish you know everyone finds like it's such an insult and things but i do feel that we all as human beings have that within us because we care about ourselves but that's not actually ultimately a bad thing so i think we should all love ourselves and care about it we should obviously to a certain degree um but not at other people's expense yes but it's interesting how subconsciously everyone has that thought even if you're not if even if you're a selfless person so yeah i thought that was very interesting i mean you just talked about people still showing up and still being there for you but let's talk about your fans for a moment Oh, they are so loyal.

10:08They are, actually. What are they called, the Rita Bot? The Rita Bot. Yeah. They're now Rita older bots because I feel like I've grown up with them so much. Yeah. But I've made new ones with this film I've done, this kids movie, that is unbelievable, how much it's opened me up to a whole new audience. Oh, isn't that lovely? But the Rita Bots, I actually saw a few of them recently. Recently, I did a sort of free concert in King's Cross with this DJ. Do you know about him? It's so good. He's so cool. Yeah, and I love what he does. Isn't he great? He's done and has been doing this for so long. Yeah.

10:50And I feel like now suddenly people have discovered him, but he's been supporting sort of unsigned artists and people like that just needed a platform forever. and now we as you know whoever like Will Smith was doing the same day as me and we ended up having a block party like in the middle of King's Cross and I mean I recognized nearly half of that audience because my fans that I remember from 2012 were all there like how got goosebumps I know I mean how amazing is that like how lucky am I to have that core fan base and I think that's because I did it in a time where it was still barely TikTok.

11:29I mean, no TikTok. I mean, I'm talking maybe just Twitter started at the time. No streaming platforms. There was no Spotify. But actually, I think that's why they showed up. And also, I feel like your fans know you. Yeah. I think, yeah. They know who you are. They're not taking it from the papers or they see you in the flesh. You perform and you give a lot of yourself. So I think I'm very grateful for coming out at the time that I did. And I do give a lot of myself. I feel like it's all or nothing in those moments. I've never met another celebrity with a work ethic like yours. No, you are amazing.

12:12And I feel like that's got to do with partly you coming here with your parents. you know born in Kosovo but came here as refugees yeah in the late late 90s yeah early 90s early 90s I came I was born 1990 came here when I was one oh so 1991 yes because the war ended in 1997 I think right yeah and and you grew up watching your parents trying to start a new life yeah all over again and how much that took how much of an influence on you was that I mean everything I mean I can talk about them forever but they did it with a smile on their face like all the time they never brought the struggles in to our lives as kids like my sister and I were very close and I think it's because we only had each other to rely on while they were sort of balancing two jobs two three jobs at a time my father most of the time as my mum was being a mum and learning how to speak English and trying to redo her studies as a doctor and I quickly talk about her for a moment she's so much no absolutely actually it's a bit worrying because I always say like you need to calm down oh but she adores just you and what you are an advocate for and with everything with menopause which she got at a very early age from chemotherapy yes um And, you know, you've, you know, I mean, I don't need to tell you.

13:46And I think all your people listening know exactly who you are. But, yeah, my mum is an insanely strong woman. Because she was a doctor in Kosovo and then had to leave. I mean, she was successful. She had a very good career and had to leave everything behind. Yeah. And start from scratch. But learning a new language. I know. In adulthood, which is really hard. Oh, I can only imagine. I try to learn a hello in any language I'm performing in. And I don't remember it by the time I'm on stage because of my adrenaline. And I've been studying it all day. I can only imagine what it's like to learn a whole new language with children.

14:26She's definitely a hardworking sort of we have to figure it out type of human. Like there's no other choice. And I think that's probably why I do so much because I don't have a plan B. You know, Steve Jobs has this very famous quote. It's, you know, if you have a plan B, you'll never really achieve your plan A. Which I always remembered. That's so true. Because, you know, you always know you have a backup plan, so you're not giving your all into what you really genuinely want to do. And my mum never had a plan B, you know, and I never had a plan B. So, I don't know, I think that just, that sort of survival instinct, you would say, really just resonated with us.

15:07I think what's lovely about your parents is that you know you loved performing and you went to Sylvia Young you know you wanted to kind of do some theatre or you knew that what you wanted to do I went to a school which at the time they didn't even know how they were going to pay for it you know they were like let's see if she gets in and I did and they were like oh shit we're gonna need to figure this out but they did they made it work and I think you know what's lovely is when parents um I I started off wanting to be a singer and then I wanted to be a tv presenter neither of those jobs are the kind of jobs that parents go no right but my parents did my dad and my stepmom were like you you do you go go go like go for it and I worked in a restaurant and everything to keep going but I'm just interested you know your parents fully supported yeah your desire to I perform with a sense of reality checks here and there, but they never stopped me.

16:02You know, when I had ideas or I was sort of paying my own way. I had a weekend job at the time when I was growing up. What was your weekend job? I was just selling trainers in a trainer shop in Portobello, which is very different now. It's very fancy now. Yeah, fancy, fancy. Look at it now. It never was before. I walked down there the other day and I was like, what the? It's literally insane. It's like Oxford Street. Yeah, it's mad. So I'd use that money and I would, you know, go and buy CDs or clothes, anything to amplify my artistry, find really cool CD shops and hang out in them and meet other sort of record collectors and, you know, like rough trade and things like that.

16:46And then I would go to sort of underground raves and that's where I fell in love with the drag scene and all the sort of that community. and they accepted me and actually really got me into fashion, to be honest. They gave me their wigs and they would put me in crazy outfits and I would sweat so much. They'd be like, oh, it's all part of it. It's all part of it. But that community made me feel like I could be an artist. Like I could really do this for real. And so then on the weekdays, I would work in a sneaker shop and be an intern in a recording studio to get free studio recording time because it was so expensive to record any demos.

17:29I mean, you know, you had your raving days. You would go and see artists perform on stage and trying to get recognised and literally like 3 a.m. and things like that. And so finally I got the moment to cut vocals and I did and then I would, you know, ship them out to labels and it finally fell into the right lap. Can I ask you something? How old were you when you started doing all of that? Because I know you got some TV roles. You got a TV film role when you were about 14. I did. Super young. But when did you get your first singing break? I was 16 when I had the ambition to really sing when I left high school, secondary school.

18:05And I think my first real break was when I was turning 19 when I had my first record deal with Rock Nation in New York. How did that happen? because that's mega to go from kind of working in a recording studio to actually Jay-Z's record label in New York. Thinking back, I didn't realise how big of a deal it really was because I literally went from the trainer shop on the Sunday to getting on a flight to arriving in New York and being in front of the biggest superstars in the world. Were you with anyone? Were you with your mum? Did anybody come with you? No, I had an assistant manager at the time that used to be a lawyer so my lawyer that I still have um sort of helped me to be honest managed they knew yeah and introduced me to the right people that introduced me to the manager but the lawyer really kind of took me under his wing at the time and he was like oh I'll just send one of my associates in case they try and have you sign something and that was it we went and I was just kind of like what is happening and within 48 hours I was offered a record deal yes at like midnight I mean that's the rap rap mogul thing like it was literally like what you see in straight out of Compton I don't know if you've seen that film about uh Ice Cube and all of those guys but it was literally like that I went to the studio it was like 1am I was just sort of like kid from London thinking what is happening because it's quite hard to have a voice at that point you know if somebody like Jay-Z is going well I think you should make this kind of music yeah no it's hard but did were you able to go actually no this is what I want to do not really I didn't know really what the right thing was to say I knew that I wanted to sing and I knew that they had the key to every door and I was just so excited to just work with like the biggest musical sort of musicians, producers, writers, I mean, you name it, like the world was my oyster.

20:04And they really did help establish, I would say, me as an artist, to be honest, like they helped me grow fast and discover who I was and introduced me to incredible people. But the journey, I have to say, with its pluses, there was also a lot of struggles. What were they? It was a very oversaturated industry and they had a lot of options with a lot of amazing artists and it was sort of trying fighting to be heard at some points which you'll understand in the music industry especially at that time wasn't unusual I think Ray's been incredibly vocal about her experiences it's very similar there's a lot of experiences like that where you really have to fight for yourself and even with all the love and support I had I still didn't have a release date you know I still didn't have okay when can I put my first album out there was still no sort of commitments we were just kind of recording I mean I must have recorded over 300 songs I mean I must have recorded so much music I can't even tell you the right number but Wow.

21:12After a certain amount of time, I had advice to fly back to the UK and try and work with British people and my people that my manager at the time was looking after. And I thought, I've got nothing to lose. So I went back home. How old were you at this point? How long had you been in America? I was about 19, 20. Oh, sorry. No, I was about 20. I was in New York at least two years turning 21 something like that and the album had aura been released no oh wow so you spent two years yeah recording 300 songs probably and it still hadn't come out yes that's frustrating exactly so i was very like kind of thinking why what's going on and it's almost like they take you try and record you and then park you so you don't interfere with other things they've got going on respectfully you know they probably had their own timeline of other things and things that they needed to accomplish.

22:08I mean, I can't exactly tell you why, but I can tell you what I did, which was I flew back and that's when I found DJ Fresh and the Hot Right Now song. Which can I just tell you? Which changed my life. I know. Thank you. That really still... So good. It still gets the crowd going. Give me a little bit. You know you're only in it because it's hot right now. Hot right now. Turn it up. Yes! You'll always be a raver, Davina. I am a raver. You are. It's in my bones. It's in my blood. I love that about you. That really... But that pushed the needle and I think that... I've got the response again. Like, I just, I love...

22:45That must have been so magic. You know, when you record something and you go, oh my God. Yeah, I didn't know that that was going to be so big. Did you not? No, I just thought it was such a raving, banging... I mean, I'm a club girl, so I thought, oh yeah, this will go down in the clubs, you know? I was like, yeah, okay, cool, yeah, people are going to dance to this. That's all I thought. I didn't think it was going to be like a charting, I mean, record. Mega. It was the first Trombon bass record to ever go to number one, which is so crazy for the DJs. I feel like that's a big accomplishment as a DJ.

23:16And that is what I think woke everyone up really fast. Yeah, because that came out on your first album, right? Yeah, I mean, I had to go on the album. And that was like, oh, okay, she has a number one song in the country. We're going to need to just now put out a single. And I think if I didn't do that, I don't know when I would have put my things out. It's quite interesting, that sliding doors moments where you... Yeah, but it's fighting. It's the fighting thing. It's what Ray's been trying to explain. It's what I feel like we're hearing more and more of really fighting to get your music out.

23:50Even if you have a full record deal and you have like the whole label behind you, you're still like almost in a line of other artists. And if there's other artists more successful or generating more money than you at the time, you know, they'll just delay your project. And so you have to find a reason to, like, have them give you a committed date and a timeline. Because obviously you're getting at this point more high profile. And it's such a love-hate thing with the press. And I totally understand this because we need the press. Yes, we do. We do. Yes. And as an artist, you've got to promote.

24:29You know, I know you've been doing press for your latest single. I have. You need to get it out there. But at the same time, I think they love me secretly. Yeah. Well, I have this feeling. I have a theory because I saw I watched the Jade Goody documentary and listening to the editors at the time saying, you know, there were conversations of like, look, we love Jade. she's really high profile at the moment um we can get away with saying this she'll be fine wow you know what i mean so they think oh really doing well she can take it but this this is a story that we've got do you know what i mean yeah and you can't take them down because you need them but at the same time how what was that like when it first started happening to you i'm thinking fresh Rita really excited record coming out my first taste of feeling the bad side of fame was probably when they were really hounding down you know on my love life like my relationships relentless everyone you dated it was all in brackets by the way let's just because they're written down doesn't mean that they're all true yes some of them that they wrote down coffee was someone some of them that they wrote down i was like i wish you know i mean i was like oh that would be awesome i can't even remember the names i don't even want to say it now i have respect to my husband but like oh yes of course but like love you taika we love you taika but actually no but that's the first time i felt like oh okay well i guess what i'm doing isn't enough and i was right so you read that yes oh you need more from me yes um my music you're not happy to just write about my music and everything I was putting into it like my music videos the storytelling in my music videos the also the interviews the honesty the open book that I've always approached my career with you know that was and is a blessing but it's also a curse because then they see okay well she's this type of character I'm sure she can handle this if we sort of go at her for a couple months you know I never really know how it works but I think that is how it comes in I I feel like they pick like a time frame.

26:43Yeah. And they're just like, whatever happens, we need to just, you know, go for that one. And you can't come back. You can't come back and say something like I said earlier. And I guess it feels like I have tried and it never works in my favor. You know, when you comment on something, it opens the door and then everyone has opinions on the comment. And I think that the I would say that the chicest way to do it is to just rise above and keep going. which has always been my motto I've never focused on the negative of trying to explain myself and that's also another thing if you really really need or know me you would know what the real truth is of things and I've always been the first to admit when I've done something wrong when something isn't right or when I've made a mistake or you know I have never lied and I never will lie to my to my fans or the public and I think that is something that's priceless.

27:44I think that trust and the vulnerability and the humanness of me I think has really eventually now worked in my favour. I feel like it's taken a long time though. I feel like you've had a decade. Yeah, you had a long time of having stuff thrown at you. I know. That was unfair. It just felt like a lot and the pressure. Were there ever times where you just thought, actually I don't know if I want to I want to do this anymore was there ever time the way it made you think I just can't take the pressure totally yeah all the time I think I have real deep chats with my team in what is the point of it all in moments where I feel defeated and less than or I don't even know there are so many times where I'm just like I'm gonna give up I also never want to overshadow my accomplish accomplish I can never say the word because I'm emotional now I never want to overshadow what I've done because I'm so desperate to try and do something that I haven't done that makes sense yeah because the desperation almost waters down all of your accomplishments yes but it also you forget what you've already done and I think it's so tricky in this game to remember what you've done when you're doing something new yeah because that will make you walk into it I would say with a bit more ease and calmness and this is me saying this out loud because there's not all days I'm like this you know first day that my single came out I mean I was making 20 phone calls every second like is this out is this this is has this been done has that been done and you know I was very overwhelmed I was also like coming on my period or maybe came on my period that day and I had a concert that day oh god on in Washington DC for pride month which is usually like the best type of shows to do but there was a lot of pressure that day of release and you know I have a great team now and and she said to me um just trust the process like you have a good team everyone is doing their best and we're doing what we can and you need to just let people do their jobs which I thought was interesting because the micromanaging I feel like is what gets you it's exhausting it's exhausting but you don't know you're doing it in the moment sometimes you feel as if you're doing it because you have to but you know it is exhausting to try and do everything um but it's part of the business like I love my job like I love this job it keeps me going like it keeps my blood flowing like so you know I think you can tell by how many things I do how much I love working I think I'm a I'm a healthy workaholic this this um this striving to do something different is quite interesting in you that you'd never want to stand still and be the same it's always got to be something different and it's almost like you're a phoenix you know you've come out of well that was the name of my last album um yes well not the one you've come out of my second one you've you've come out of your um i don't know 20s yes um Miss Quinty's.

31:09You have blossomed into this woman. I loved what you said about the new you being proud to be a sexy woman. Like, own your appeal. Well, also the fact that I've earned. I think that's an important word. Like, it's so sad to say that us as women have to earn the rights to do certain things. I've always found that bizarre. And how have you earned it? What made you realise, oh, okay, I'm here? The confidence I gained from working and seeing the results. I think that's what gave me the confidence. Hard work equals results. And confidence, I feel like. You know, I never want to act like my job is wholeheartedly who I am as a person, but does it give me a sense of confidence?

32:05absolutely because it makes me feel strong and that I've got something that I've done myself and it could be as simple as I don't know if anyone listening giving birth or writing a book or getting out of bed in the morning like that is an accomplishment you know don't compare your accomplishments to my accomplishments you know I think that's one thing that could be really poisonous for people but I do feel like we should be proud of those things that we do and as a woman like I'm seeing it now with Sabrina Carpenter like her being you know really attacked for being sexual and like in her skin and I don't get it it's also like so boring I'm it's such boring news like Madonna did it like guys at this point if you still have a problem with it it's really boring I find it like a sense of you have to use what you believe in to express yourself we're artists like but also like isn't it okay to feel nice in your own body like yeah it's not about you being an artist or being naked or i feel great like in my body like i'm sorry like i'm not going to apologize for that what i think is interesting in life is that we as women are expected to sort of stay youthful but actually it's only growing older that gives you the confidence to be in your own skin it's like a double and what's the word double it's such a double-edged sword no yes no there's a there's a more complicated word do you know there we go doublon tanger i risa i love you with the words oh you know it's a real thing you saw on the show it's a real thing i've just got to say i didn't mean to separate my legs like you but this is a score to everyone i just want to let you know um but you know i have the words and I hit it in my head but wait do you remember do you remember the pigeon on the mask singer oh pigeon and you went pigeon me this and then Jonathan was like what and Joel went no that's not a thing and you went yes riddle me this pigeon me this and he was like no that isn't it's just the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life I called Joel I said Joel can you tell me something funny that Rita said and he went pigeon me this oh Joel he was like she she was great they're just so brilliant you're you are brilliant i mean they've all derek's always called me i call him all the time really he asks if you ever want to you know come back you know i really i love doing tv yeah well i do but it's definitely it's it's just time where would you like your time well spent and i just really wanted to focus on might be creative again you know with my album and the films i've just wrapped on this year and I just wanted to spend time on that but that doesn't mean to say I'll never tell me about your films I have a lot well the Disney films the Descendants which is a huge kids franchise has completely changed my life honestly I'm a Disney princess even though I'm evil but it's okay it's evil ones are the great ones yeah but more fun yeah more fun oh it just makes me feel like I'm like literally a contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race because if you think about it the drama of a villain really does stem from drag queens like I'm so obsessed with watching RuPaul's like when you see their movements and their body and their nails and their makeup like it's all very similar to being a villain because the villain character is very layered you know they used to be good they're not good anymore something's happened to them PTSD they're now evil they want revenge like it's super layered you can see i've done character training but um i have so much love for villains um but doing that i play a queen of hearts villain and i've also just wrapped on a really exciting film called voltron which is a comic book i don't know if you remember it it was it's like five uh pilots that make one huge robot that like save the world oh actually it's not a robot it's like a lion lionesky type it's phenomenal sci-fi i can't say too much on that how exciting but it's a big it's a big movie and so i'm really excited about that you know it's interesting you talking about descendants because um you know you were talking about clubbing and being around where i think i was kind of clubbing at a similar time 90s no actually no i was you were in the noughties i was the of the best time it was an amazing time But like so just gay, straight, like everybody was just in a huge melting pot together and clubbing brought us music, brought us all together.

36:51Just like in your face. It was mega. Wow. Yeah. Lucky. What is that? Who are you? Davina, it's me. Us from 2045. Oh, my God. We look fabulous. We're still going strong. We're still doing workouts. We're still glowing like a lava lamp at Glasto, clearly. And I just really wanted to come back and say thank you. Thank you. No, did we overcome Rogan and become number one podcast in the world? Yes, that did happen. But that's not why I'm here. I'm here to say thank you for taking Ancient and Brave's True Collagen every day for the last 20 years because... So that collagen scoop in my tea every day actually did work.

37:39You bet your glowing arse it did, because when our collagen levels were supposed to drop, we supplemented with Ancient and Brave's True Collagen, my new show sponsor. The one backed by Clinical Trials using these sustainable and refillable bottles. Taking it every day is a great way of supporting future you. So if you're one of our brilliant viewers and you want 20 % off your first three orders of Ancient and Brave, then head over to ancientandbrave.earth.com. That is ancientandbrave.earth.com. And because they're a B Corp and a member of 1 % for the planet, that means that 1%, well, actually 2 % of their sales goes to protecting the planet.

38:19I hate to think how good we'll look in another 20 years. I want to quickly also talk about... Actually, I'm going to take that back. Take it. I don't want to quickly say anything. I want to talk about... Let's talk. It's me and you. you and we've talked we touched on um going out with boys and how the press were like more interested in that basically yeah they were for a while yes and they do that a lot to women i think and i think jennifer lopez has been a big inspiration to me for many reasons her work ethic the fact that she does so many things but i do relate to how much she also was folk her dating life was a very big part of her folk like they focused a lot on that yeah and she still just worked through it and like kept her head held high and you know I have so much respect for her and I relate to that um I've said this to her myself actually is that did she like that yeah because I only think there's a certain few women that really understand that when you have that sort of attention that you don't want on that specific subject you know because a normal person you can just kind of go and date who you want and no one will ever find out you know and it's different because you're still just trying to be a woman and navigate your like love life or you don't know who you like what you like you're going on dates like it's what normal people do but ours is just documented I guess um talking talking about that and it being documented i do want to touch on this but you have already said that it wasn't you but becky with the brown hair was good hair good hair i mean becky we've got to get it right becky with the good hair becky with the good hair yeah was such it was such a mad moment in your life i don't even remember that oh my god you know why because I have in my mind I've had worse things things have affected me worse than that what what affected you well first of all I'm going to finish yes because it wasn't real it wasn't you of course not but absolutely not I wish I had good hair can we start there you've got that's why I've got this hair care line out which would help grow my hair out because my hair has been damaged since 2013 from all the styling and bleaching so but no yeah none of that was real it was the first time I experience like what it means to have uh to be in like a messy situation I guess I mean it was like pitting it was pitting firstly nobody wants you don't want anybody to think that Beyonce is dissing you behind in a song right but behind closed doors is literally my like fairy godmother she was the protector of she was my protector that's what's insane because there was nothing but love um you know again being signed to jay-z her husband she being my biggest inspiration she came to my first show in new york at the box beyonce and i sang say my name in front of beyonce this was when i was 21 i mean yeah rita yeah so i was actually genuinely upset because that's my big sister protector she will she took it upon herself to really look after me and I still see her and to this day and she's always been so so nice and proud and checking in on my family and friends that I've had since childhood remembering their names like I mean it's crazy and I was filming um Fifty Shades of Grey at the time I remember I was in Vancouver and I had, you know, a lot of lonely times because, you know, when you're on a film set, you're in the middle of nowhere and you'll go home to a hotel and blah, blah, blah.

42:13And I just was so confused and I was young and I was like, what is happening? Why is this? All of that was happening in the press while you were filming. And I was like, why is this happening to me? What have I done? You know, and I felt, I guess I get it now, the association and all of that. But when I saw each other at the Met Gala, we took a selfie and it was gone. because actually there was never anything there in the first place. And that was a great album, by the way. It's one of my favourite Beyonce albums. But it's tough, that. Navigating that. Yeah. And that was, I felt really like, ooh, okay, I guess this is what it feels like.

42:52You said that wasn't even the worst. Like, what was? Well, no, not personally, no, because that wasn't real. That was more like a, what the hell is going on? What was and is real is when I feel like my family are being affected. That's what's real. That's what bothers me. So any headline you can think of, it always trickles down to my parents because they are my parents. And I think that when you read something in the headline and you see a famous person, I don't think people realize like, oh, gosh, she's got a mom. That mom's got a mom. You know, it's like a trickle effect. and psychologically that does a lot to a person, especially when you have to sort of, I don't know, parent your parents almost a little bit.

43:39Look out for your parents. Yeah, to just remind them that it's not real life and, you know, they have friends that ask them questions. I think that's what's kept me going, like really having these two lives separate. Like I genuinely don't see Rita Ora when I go home. like at all it's two completely different people you know a lot of my personal friends you know what I'm like behind the camera like it really is lazy Rita like I just don't wear makeup I love to exercise I love to just like hang out with people I've grown up with my whole life um I did speak to a couple of people this morning did you um I spoke to Bulza oh I spoke to Linda and I said, you know, is there anything that you want to say about Rita?