Rita Ora on being a stepmother to Taika Waititi’s kids and life in New Zealand

NZ Herald

5 Jun, 2024 10:08 PM3 mins to read

Taika Waititi and Rita Ora have spent more time in New Zealand since purchasing a home in Auckland's Point Chevalier. Photo / Getty Images

Rita Ora has opened up about her role as stepmother to her husband Taika Waititi’s children.

The pop star recently appeared on the podcast Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware and spoke about her life going back and forth from LA and New Zealand, where the couple bought a $10.5 million home in Point Chevalier last year.

During the chat, Ora described herself as a “fairy godmother” to Waititi’s daughters Matewa Kiritapu and Te Hinekāhu, reports the Mirror UK.

Asked what it’s like spending time with her husband’s children, Ora gushed, “I love it.”

“It just feels really cool because it’s like I’m just the fairy godmother [who] doesn’t actually really have any responsibility. I break all the rules, I buy them anything they want - it’s the best.”

During the interview, she also spoke of living in New Zealand, describing the Kiwi lifestyle as a “game-changer” and the country as having become a “home away from home” since her marriage to the award-winning director in August 2022.

“You know, half of my family and his kids go to school in New Zealand and so, yeah, we’re always there,” she shared. “[In] Auckland, we have a place literally on the water. It’s really nice. I feel like New Zealand is obviously so far, if you make an effort to get there, it’s a game-changer.”

Te Hinekāhu, 11, and Matewa Kiritapu, 8, whom Waititi shares with his ex-wife Chelsea Winstanley, live in New Zealand fulltime.

Last year, Waititi spoke about parenting his children amid the demands of his job as a director.

He told Succession’s Kieran Culkin during a chat for Interview magazine, “I’ve got two daughters, 10 and 7. But it’s very different with us. I’ll be away for a month or two at a time and try to really make up for that when we get back together. It’s tough being a parent who abandons your kids.

Taika Waititi with his kids, Matewa Kiritapu, 6, and Te Hinekāhu, 10, at the Thor: Love and Thunder premiere in London. Photo / Neil Mockford, FilmMagic

“You start justifying things in your head. You’re like, ‘Yeah, but they’ll really appreciate the work ethic’.”

Waititi admitted that these days, his daughters would rather have “the stability of being around their friends at school” than constantly be travelling with him.

“My kids have been on every set of every film, and they meet all different types of personalities in this little contained society. It’s really cool. And it’s not the school thing that worries me. I couldn’t care less about school. You’ll learn a lot just by being around smart people and being around books.”

Now Waititi and Ora have a home base in Auckland, they have spent more time in New Zealand.

Their three-storey Point Chevalier home sits atop a cliff on a 620sq m section, with views across Waitematā to Te Atatū Peninsula and Hobsonville Point. It was built in the 1990s and underwent renovations a few years ago, with a pool, new bathrooms and kitchen added to the property.