Back in May 2021, singer Rita Ora and her boyfriend director Taika Waititi hit the headlines when they were photographed kissing British actress Tessa Thompson at a party.
Naturally, the internet had a field day and claims that Rita and Taika were in a throuple with Tessa were rife.
Now, Rita has broken her silence and explained the whole situation.
In an interview with British GQ, Rita - who is rumoured to have secretly married Taika last year – called the claims ‘absurd’.
She said, ‘I just chose not to acknowledge that because it’s ridiculous. I think when some things are so absurd, and it’s hard to fathom any sense of it, you just have to ignore it.’
She explained, ‘Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve had a lot of drinks and everyone’s your best friend? And then the next day you’re like, “I was talking to this person in the smoking area for four hours and I’ve got no idea who they are?” Literally that [photo] was just a bunch of friends having a good time. They [Taika and Tessa] had a crazy schedule and everyone was letting loose.’
Taika and Tessa had just wrapped the filming of Thor: Love and Thunder when the pictures were taken in Australia, whilst Rita was in the country filming The Voice.
For his, part Taika addressed the photographs at the time, dismissing them as no big deal.
When asked if he was upset about the media storm surrounding him, Rita and Tessa Taika said, ‘Not really. I think in the world of the Internet, everything goes away pretty quick. And also, "Is it that big a deal?" No, not really. I was doing nothing wrong. It's fine.’
Luckily, despite the supposed throuple being nothing more than a story concocted by the internet, some positives did come from the photographs going public.
Rita revealed, ‘The good news though, is that when I was on Twitter talking to my fans, all of my incredible LGBTQIA+ fanbases were like, actually – whether this is true or not – I’m so inspired that this is being normalised publicly. That made me really happy. You don’t know who it’s touching.’