The British pop star reveals how Queen Bey became her protector amid a scandal that never really existed
Rita Ora is finally setting the record straight about one of the most infamous pop culture moments of the 2010s—and she’s doing it with nothing but praise for Beyoncé.
In a candid conversation on the podcast Begin Again with Davina McCall, the 34-year-old singer and actress reflected on how she unexpectedly got pulled into the whirlwind of speculation surrounding Beyoncé’s 2016 Lemonade lyric, “Becky with the good hair.” The line, which fueled intense rumors of infidelity in Beyoncé’s marriage to Jay-Z, quickly spiraled into internet-driven theories, with Rita’s name thrown into the mix.
“It was the first time I found myself in such a confusing situation,” Ora recalled, laughing as she added, “I wish I actually had good hair!”
Rita was adamant that the rumors were baseless. At the time, she was juggling her music career and filming Fifty Shades of Grey, feeling overwhelmed by the sudden and unprovoked attention. “I remember thinking, why is this happening to me? What did I even do?” she said.
Behind the scenes, though, Beyoncé offered Rita the kind of support that went far beyond industry courtesy. “She was like my fairy godmother,” Ora shared. “There was nothing but love between us. She’s always been my biggest inspiration. She even showed up to my first performance in New York at The Box. That meant the world to me.”
The tension-defusing moment came at the 2016 Met Gala, where Rita and Beyoncé posed for a now-iconic selfie together. “After that, everything just disappeared,” Rita said. “Because there was never anything there to begin with.”
Today, Rita remains one of Beyoncé’s biggest fans, calling Lemonade “a masterpiece” and describing their relationship as something deeply personal. “She’s like a big sister to me. She checks in, asks about my family, and remembers the names of childhood friends. That’s incredible.”
This isn’t the first time Ora has addressed the infamous saga. Back in 2022, she told Louis Theroux that the necklace she wore—with an “R” pendant—was misinterpreted online as a “J” for Jay-Z. “They flipped it around and the internet did its thing. That was it,” she laughed. Katy Perry even gifted her a pin that read “Not Becky” to lighten the mood.
For Rita, the entire episode is now just an odd footnote in a career defined by resilience, reinvention, and—thanks to Beyoncé—a sense of sisterhood that outlasted the noise.
