Rita Ora urges people to ask Boris Johnson about breaching lockdown rules rather than her

Rita Ora has urged people to ask Boris Johnson about breaching lockdown rules rather than her, more than two years after first apologising for hosting a party during the first wave of Covid.

The singer and actor faced criticism in November 2020 after it emerged that she threw a private 30th birthday party at a restaurant in London’s Notting Hill during lockdown.

Pictures showed a number of celebrity guests arriving at the Casa Cruz restaurant, including Cara and Poppy Delevingne – despite indoor gatherings of more than six people being banned at the time.

In an Instagram Story shortly after the photos emerged, Ora said she was “embarrassed” and “deeply sorry” for breaking the rules. “I attended a small gathering with some friends to celebrate my 30th birthday,” she wrote. “It was a spur of the moment decision made with the misguided view that we were coming out of lockdown and this would be OK.”

Now, more than two years on, Ora pithily declined to comment further on the controversy – and suggested people’s anger should be focused elsewhere.

Speaking to The Telegraph about her new album You & I, which is out on 14 July, Ora explained: “I’ve said everything I need to say.” She then added: “You should ask Boris Johnson about that.”

Johnson was fined by police for attending a birthday party in Downing Street in June 2020 and resigned from the Commons last month rather than facing his punishment for misleading the House about other events at No 10.

Johnson’s official spokesperson commented on Ora’s party in November 2020, writing in a statement that “the lockdown rules apply to celebrities and that they should be setting examples”.

Ora continued to apologise for hosting the party in the months that followed, telling The Independent in 2021 that she remained “incredibly embarrassed” by the incident. Through tears, she added: “It’s really hard for me to talk about it. I just wish I had made a different choice. It makes me sad because it’s something I wish had never happened.”

Ora, who is married to the Thor: Ragnarok filmmaker Taika Waititi, also said this year that she and her husband kept their wedding secret due to her pop star fame.

“Some women like to feel that real special attention that day,” she explained. “And everyone’s different. And for me – I think with my job, it is all… it’s very attention-driven – I wanted to keep it private because my life and my career aren’t.”

In January, she also commented for the first time on pictures showing her, Waititi and the Thor star Tessa Thompson appearing cosy on a balcony in Australia, which led to speculation that the trio were in a “throuple” relationship.

“I just chose to not acknowledge that because it’s ridiculous,” Ora said. “I think when some things are so absurd, and it’s hard to fathom any sense of it, you just have to ignore it.”

Ora’s new album, which includes the Fat Boy Slim-sampling single “Praising You”, is out on 14 July.