Rita Ora is clearing the air years after being tangled in one of pop culture’s biggest rumors.
In a new interview on the Begin Again with Davina McCall podcast, the 34-year-old singer revisited the firestorm she faced in 2016 after Beyoncé dropped her album Lemonade. At the time, many believed Rita was the infamous “Becky with the good hair” mentioned on the track “Sorry.”
Looking back, Rita says the rumors didn’t hold much weight for her. “Because it wasn’t real,” she said. “I wish I had good hair.”
“None of that was real. That was the first time I experienced what it means to be in a messy situation, I guess,” she explained.
What the public didn’t see, she shared, was how Beyoncé supported her behind the scenes. “She was my protector. That’s what’s insane because there was nothing but love,” Rita said. “And, 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.”
At the time the album dropped, Rita was working on the Fifty Shades of Grey film and said she felt blindsided. “I was like, ‘Why is this happening to me? What have I done?’”
Ultimately, Rita and Beyoncé put the rumors to rest in the most iconic way—by taking a selfie together at the 2016 Met Gala. “Then it was gone,” she said. “Because there was never anything there in the first place.”
Rita also recalled singing “Say My Name” in front of Beyoncé when she was just 21. “I was actually genuinely upset because that’s my big sister protector. She took it upon herself to really look after me,” she shared.
To this day, Rita says Beyoncé still checks in with her—and even remembers the names of her childhood friends. “She’s always been so, so nice and proud,” Rita added.
