Rita Ora dating Thor-director Taika Waititi, extends Australia stay

It seems Rita Ora has found love in Australia and the romance is behind the British singer’s decision to stay in the country.

The mystery behind Rita Ora’s ‘extended, extended’ stay in Australia may have finally been solved, with the British singer allegedly striking up a romance with red-hot Oscar-winning Kiwi film director Taika Waititi.

It’s understood Ora, who officially wrapped her contractual duties with Channel 7 a fortnight ago, has been dating the divorced Thor director “very quietly” prior to going public with that ultimate sign that things are getting serious; the Instagram selfie posted to her account last week.

Rita Ora with Thor director Taika Waititi.

Ora at a health retreat in the Hawkesbury.

Waititi is in Australia filming Thor. Picture: Jean-Baptiste Lacroix

But Sunday Confidential can reveal the 30-year-old singer first raised eyebrows last month when she took Waititi along to the grand final taping of The Voice where she shares the judging panel with Guy Sebastian, Jessica Mauboy and Keith Urban.

A network spy who also attended the taping said the pair seemed “very close” and that Waititi, 45, looked on from a VIP pocket backstage while Ora “did her thing”.

The Voice host Sonia Kruger too, confirmed this week that Waititi accompanied Ora to the taping, saying; “I thought that maybe they are working on a project together.”

Waititi was spotted with a handful of celebrities including Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman at a South Sydney game. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Ora recently paid a visit to the South Sydney Rabbitohs players.

However it seems that “project” is a blossoming new romance – an unlikely union which marks the first high-profile relationship for Waititi since he quietly ended his marriage to wife and Oscar-nominated film producer Chelsea Winstanley in 2018.

The couple share two daughters.

Ora, meanwhile, was previously dating French film director Romain Gavras who – as recently as February this year – maintained the couple were still together despite the fact Ora has adopted Australia as her temporary second home.

“Rita and I are very close. We are together. She is an amazing person,” he told a news website at the time.

However Ora’s new-found relationship with the Thor: Love And Thunder helmer explains the singer’s decision to stay on in Sydney despite having finished her Seven duties.

Previously Ora had put down her prolonged stay here to having “fallen in love with the city”.