Rita Ora‘s Stateside takeover continued on Wednesday night as she made a glamorous appearance on the latest episode on The Masked Singer US.
After cementing her career across the pond with music success, the star was in high spirits as she appeared alongside Robin Thicke, Ken Jeong and Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg on the judging panel after joining the show for its 11th season.
Sporting a bright pink bustier top and matching blue shorts, Rita showed off her incredible figure as she watched Sir Lion being revealed to be veteran presenter Billy Bush.
Rita had previously struggled to make a name for herself across the pond despite huge successes back home, and a slew of high-profile romances.
Her road to success has also featured numerous speed bumps including being sued for $2.3M and being linked to Beyonce’s husband Jay-Z
MailOnline takes a look at Rita’s journey to cement her career Stateside…
Rita Ora ‘s Stateside takeover continued on Wednesday night as she made a glamorous appearance on the latest episode on The Masked Singer US
After cementing her career across the pond with music success, the star was in high spirits as she joined Robin Thicke, Ken Jeong and Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg on the judging panel
Sporting a bright pink bustier top and matching blue shorts, Rita showed off her incredible figure as she posed for snaps on the judging panel
A reality TV romance
Rita first found some notoriety in the States when she had a short-lived romance with Robert Kardashian in 2012.
The singer the reality for two months before ending their brief romance due to her ‘hectic work schedule’ and their incompatible lifestyles.
The end of their brief romance coincided with a series of bitter social media posts from Rob, who indirectly suggested the singer had cheated on him numerous times during their relationship.
Posting shortly after their split in December 2012, he wrote: ‘When a woman cheats on you with one man I can live with that. People make mistakes, trust me. I have forgiven numerous times…
‘But when a woman disrespects herself by messing with more than 20 men all while being in a relationship with a Faithful man…
Rita first found some notoriety in the States when she had a short-lived romance with Robert Kardashian in 2012
‘I just don’t get how a woman can do that to her body. And your career hasn’t even launched yet. I don’t put up with sloppiness. LOYALTY.’
He later added: ‘How can a woman who is so busy trying to start her own career have time to be with so many dudes while in a relationship?!’
‘I’m actually disgusted a woman could give up her body to more than 20 dudes in less than a year’s time while trying to start a career.’
The tweets were live for around 30 minutes before Rob appeared to have second thoughts and deleted them – but not before they went viral.
In 2020, Rita confessed she’d ‘forgotten’ about her brief relationship with Rob.
‘Oh, I forgot about that,’ she told The Sunday Times when asked what it was like to date a Kardashian.
‘It was very short-lived. I was so young. It was fun. It was very, very fun, I guess. That’s all I remember.’
In an interview with Glamour, the singer confirmed she instigated the split, but wanted to ‘keep it friendly’.
She commented: ‘I’m not going out with Rob. We were close for a while, but it didn’t work because I was never there.
‘I was like a ghost. I used to get so frustrated with myself and then wonder why I was angry, so I decided it was best to keep it friendly – especially at the moment when there’s so much going on.’
Music woes and a messy split
Despite her talents, Rita’s early singles failed to strike a cord with American audiences and was forced to scrap her second album in 2014 amid her split from Calvin Harris (pictured in 2013)
Rumours that DJ Calvin had been involved with Rita started swirling when she claimed he had blocked her from performing I Will Never Let You Down
While the music mogul kept quiet at the time he broke his silence last year to insist the claims were a ‘myth’
Despite her talents Rita’s early singles failed to strike a cord with American audiences and was forced to scrap her second album in 2014 amid her split from Calvin Harris.
Rumours that DJ Calvin had been involved with Rita started swirling when she claimed he had blocked her from performing I Will Never Let You Down — which he wrote and produced — at the 2014 Teen Choice Awards.
Shortly afterwards she canned her second album, with fans speculating that it was down to Calvin refusing to sign off on several songs from the CD.
While the music mogul kept quiet at the time he broke his silence last year to insist the claims were a ‘myth.’
After a fan tweeted that if Rita’s second album hadn’t been ‘torpedoed’ she would’ve been ‘one of the biggest pop stars in the world’, Calvin was quick to hit back.
He tweeted: ‘Entire thing is a myth, there is one unreleased song i worked on and it isn’t good.’
Rita – who is now married to director Taika Waititi – previously spoke of her split from Calvin and confirmed that her album, which had been years in the making, would not feature music the duo had collaborated on before their break up.
She said in 2017: ‘It’s one of these things that… Well, for me it’s in the past. Whatever I say somehow turns into a headline and it becomes a story again.’
Dismissing speculation that the duo are still at loggerheads, she made sure to add: ‘He’s a great guy and we’re on good terms now.’
Rita split from Calvin in 2014, after dating the This Is What You Came For hit-maker for just over a year.
She had declared Calvin was the first person she really fell in love with, but was reportedly left ’embarrassed’ when he announced their split publicly via Twitter.
Jay-Z affair rumours
After signing with the Jay-Z’s Roc Nation music label way back in 2008, Rita found herself accused of cheating with the company’s founder and Beyonce’s husband.
However denied that she was the individual referred to as ‘Becky with the good hair’ who was the other woman referred to in Beyoncé’s 2016 single Sorry from her album lemonade.
The uproar began when Rita shared a picture of herself around that time wearing lemons on her bra and a ‘J’ on a necklace around her neck.
But she denied the claims telling Louis Theroux last year: ‘Oh my God, it literally was a coincidence, I didn’t even think about it’.
‘And it wasn’t a J, it was an R. They flipped it round and then it looked like a J.’
Roc Nation lawsuit
Rita was sued for £2.3 million by her former label Roc Nation in 2012, which prohibited her from making music for five years.
The star previously accusing the company of neglecting her in favour of other artists, before they counter-sued and then settled the case in 2016.
Speaking about the court battle she told the Daily Star in 2019 the stress of the situation definitely left her ‘scared.’
‘I definitely had a bit of worry and yeah, I was fearful of my life because, this is my life. My music is all I know so for me I was definitely scared,’ she expressed.
In 2016, Rita came to an agreement after Roc Nation sued Rita for $2.4 million for breaching the terms of her contract and not providing the required number of albums throughout the years she’s been with them.
A glitzy Hollywood marriage
She was catapulted further into the headlines when first began dating New Zealand filmmaker Taika, 48, in 2021. They married the following year
Power couple: Taika was already a huge star in the US making a name for himself directing two Thor adventures (the latest grossing a whopping £300M) as well as 2019’s Jojo Rabbit
Rita has since made numerous and incredibly stylish appearances on the red carpet to support her husband at his premieres
Rita was catapulted further into the headlines when first began dating New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi, 48, in 2021.
The couple went on to wed in a secret London ceremony in August 2022.
Taika was already a huge star in the US making a name for himself directing two Thor adventures (the latest grossing a whopping £300M) as well as 2019’s Jojo Rabbit.
And Rita has made numerous and incredibly stylish appearances on the red carpet to support her husband at his premieres.
Now a more recognisable face to American audiences she has since gone on to land numerous brand partnerships including luxury brand Prada.
Cracking the charts
In September, Rita’s music finally made a mark on the US charts, when her single Praising You peaked at #1 on the US Dance/Mix Billboard chart
Despite her talents Rita’s early singles failed to strike a cord with American audiences.
Many US fans best knew Rita for her collaborative work, appearing on Iggy Azalea’s track Black Widow, which earned a nomination for Top Rap Song at the Billboard Music Awards.
But in September, her single Praising You peaked at #1 on the US Dance/Mix Billboard chart.
Rita previously opened up about how she and Fatboy Slim came to work together on the song, revealing that she met him at 2.30am in Shangri-La.
She told Glamour: ‘I went up to him and said, ‘I love you, I’d love for us to do something together one day.’ It was 2.30am in Shangri-La, the ravers’ corner.
‘I wouldn’t say it was the best place to have a business conversation. I got his number and basically stalked him.
‘He may not say I was that bad, but for me, I was definitely. I was like, ‘Please, if anyone can pull this off, I think it can be me.’ I know he’d been asked for years by other people.
‘We built a genuine connection. I wrote a song with Praise You in mind and sent it to him; he came back and said he loved it.’