Rita Ora opens up about her anxiety: ‘I’m not scared to admit I’ve been to therapy’

Rita Ora has opened up about her battle with anxiety, saying that she’s not ‘scared to admit’ that she has been to therapy.

The pop star-turned-presenter, who has just been announced as the new host of America’s Next Top Model, says that she struggles with thinking about ‘long-term goals’.

In a new interview with Cosmopolitan magazine, the 25-year-old said: “I’m not scared to admit I’ve had therapy.

“I have someone I speak to once a week. People suffer from it in different ways, but for me it’s more about thinking about the long-term goal.

“I’m a very ‘in the moment’ person, so if I have to do something there and then, I’ll be fine. But if I think about it, that’s when anxious thoughts start going on.

Ora, who has recently left Jay Z’s record label Roc Nation and signed a new contract, still feels nervous in the recording studio.

“In singing classes I’d let rip, turning a musical-theatre song into an R&B record. I was never the quiet one – I was always the girl with the annoying laugh. I still am. It’s very potent and loud.

“I get so nervous because I care so much. I get nervous about recording a song in the studio.”

She added: “I’ve worked really hard since I can remember. People get confused with what they see and only see ‘Rita parties’.

“They don’t see the 16-hour days I work. You have to work incredibly hard to survive in this industry now.”

And despite a legal battle with Roc Nation, Ora is still on good terms with the rapper and his superstar wife.

“Jay is one of my idols and Beyoncé is obviously the queen of life,” she told the magazine.

“I’ll never not appreciate the experience I have had with them and the things I’ve seen. They’ve been great mentors. I look up to them a lot.”

The full interview appears in the September 2016 issue of Cosmopolitan, on sale 3rd August.

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