Star Rita: I was abused at 14 by man, 26

RITA Ora has revealed that she was sexually abused as a 14-year-old after being groomed by a man aged 26.

The X Factor judge and chart star said the incidents took place when she was a drama student. Rita, now 24, said: “It was my first relationship with a guy.”

The singer claimed the attentions of her older lover were a huge boost to her teenage confidence.

Talking about it for the first time, she astonishingly said: “I was almost obsessed with having a man feel like he wants me.

“It made me feel great and I didn’t care what he did or how old he was. I wanted it. It’s crazy.”

She added: “It’s child abuse, really, isn’t it?”

The shock revelations come in a new biography that charts the rise of Rita from Kosovan refugee to international star.

Gidiupdate on Sunday is today publishing exclusive extracts from the book.

Opening up about her childhood, the singer said: “I was 14 when I started, when I got my first relationship with a guy.

“I would say (he was) about 26, and you have to remember I hadn’t had a relationship before then at all.

“I was very new to the whole world of a man and a female.” Rita says of that time: “It’s strange how, once it starts, you kind of feel you can take over the world.

“Even to this day if someone fancied me I’d feel so great.”

Fresh faced ... Rita at 14 Sylvia Young

As a judge on X Factor — in charge of the girls’ category in this year’s hunt for pop’s next star — Rita is a role model to millions.

She said of her teenage fling: “I don’t want to say that I suffered it, because I wanted it. I don’t want to say that I was forced to do it. I don’t want people to think I was abused as a kid but I was definitely more mature than I should have been at 14.”

Rita, who has had four No1 singles, a chart-topping album and was credited with drawing four million viewers to The Voice, has a vast fanbase of young girls.

Many are the same age that she was when she experienced the abuse.

She was a teen at London’s Sylvia Young Theatre School and looked young for her age. But she admits she felt stronger because of what was happening with the older man.

Close ... with mum Vera at awards bash in 2013 Dave M. Benett/Getty

Rita, who was speaking to Lifetime TV, went on: “I can’t begin to tell you how confident I felt when a man was interested in me.


“I felt like I was sexy, I felt like I had a form of respect, I felt like he listened to me.

“Now I know he listened to me because he obviously wanted to have sex with me. I felt good that men fancied me.”

She even changed her looks to get attention. “I’d wear low tops,” she said. “I’d put red lipstick on, I’d make my hair blonder.

“My mum would just completely be like, ‘What are you doing’? I think that’s what got me dressing crazy, why I love crazy clothes. Because my mum always let me freely express myself.

“But she didn’t know that I was expressing myself because I was seeing men.”

Rita’s candid comments came in an interview on women’s issues from 2013 which has been unearthed by the book’s authors Douglas Wight and Jenn Wiley.

Her remarks will spark controversy in a climate where celebrities have been accused over historical allegations of underage sex.

X Factor ... singer alongside fellow judges ITV

They also follow a controversial statement by Pretenders star Chrissie Hynde that she was partly to blame for being raped.

The book, titled Hot Right Now after her debut hit, also reveals Rita struggled to find men not put off by her wealth and fame.

She explained: “It is very intimidating. It’s money. Money can be intimidating, money can be scary, money can be powerful.”

Rita admits she has a mixed view of men. She said: “You’re looking for a cuddle.

“Everybody loves a spoon. So when you’re looking for a relationship, you’re looking for that.

“The man has to be so secure with himself to be able to accept the fact that the woman only needs him for his comfort, his cuddles and his amazing p****.

“At the end of the day, that’s all a woman wants, really. All a woman wants is a companion and a best friend and amazing sex.”

Rita first had sex while still a drama student trying to fulfil her dreams of becoming a singer. She managed to land a music production deal with KT Tunstall’s producer Martin Terefe and quickly went on to work with R’n’B star Craig David.

Confident ... Rita has been linked to a string of celebrities BBC

But despite her older lover she admitted: “I was really in love with this boy in high school, Jamie. But I’m not going to tell you his second name.”

Ex-classmates say the student she yearned for is actor Jamie Blackley, 24, recently seen in the Woody Allen film Irrational Man.

One pal revealed: “Rita had a huge crush on Jamie.” Another said: “At parties I think they had a kiss from time to time. They were both quite rebellious.”

At 16 Rita started work in trendy Notting Hill shoe shop Size? and former workmate Antonio Fumarola said she was very open about her sexual experience.

Daddy's girl ... Rita with her father Besnik Rex Features

He added: “She wasn’t innocent. She and her friend had experience. I’d tell them, ‘Beautiful girls like you, just make sure you don’t let guys abuse you for sex’.

“Some of those guys who were around were good guys, but with some of them you didn’t know what they were up to.

“I’d try to tell them to be careful. Sometimes they’d come in and be upset, telling me stories maybe about having sex the night before. Not specifics, but maybe the guy upset them.

“Sometimes it was guys she was dating and other stories about random guys.

“I remember she was with a guy but somehow ended up one night with another.

“She was worried about her boyfriend finding out. I told her, ‘You don’t need to stay with this guy and get married. Enjoy life’.”

Rita hit the big time when she was signed by Jay Z to his Roc Nation label.

One of the first collaborators and the writer of her second Number One RIP, was Canadian rapper Drake.

There were claims Rita had been seen kissing him backstage while on tour, although she was by then dating Rob Kardashian.

Rita and Drake — real name Aubrey Drake Graham, 28 — denied any romance.

But the book reveals the pair wrote a song together about secret lovers.

Rita also gave Drake a cherished ring that belonged to her late grandfather.

She said: “We wrote a song called What If I Kissed You Right Now?, which is one of my secret favourites.

“It’s not going to be on the album, unfortunately. I would have loved it but we didn’t have time to finish it.”

When Rita split from Kardashian in 2012, she was linked to a host of men — and model “wifey” Cara
Delevingne. The book reveals she also grew close to Ledri Vula, 28, a rugged Kosovan rapper.

But in 2013 she started dating Calvin Harris before they split a year later.

She went on to date Ricky Hil, son of designer Tommy Hilfiger and was most recently seeing tattooed rocker Travis.

Yet Rita admits her mum and dad Vera and Besnik Sahatciu would rather she settled down with a man from her homeland. She said: “You know how they are, right?

“Marry your own kind and it’s suddenly ten times better than anything else.”

— HOT Right Now: The Definitive Biography of Rita Ora by Douglas Wight & Jennifer Wiley is published by 22Five Publishing on October 29 at £14.99. Available to buy at half price, £7.49 at WH Smith for a limited time only, in selected high street stores, subject to availability.