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If Rita Ora Is Becky, Why Are She And Beyoncé So Close At Met Ball?

Rita Ora posted a Snapchat of her and Beyonce at the Met Ball last night. But if she's not Becky, then why did Ora encourage that very speculation last week?

British singer Rita Ora has attempted to put paid to persistent rumors that she is the marriage-straining other woman ‘Becky with the good hair’ in Beyonce’s new album Lemonade, by posting a Snapchat video of herself and Beyonce looking close at last night’s Met Ball.

She captioned a picture, which shows her and Beyonce laughing and enjoying the kind of body language you don’t usually have with women who think you have been having an affair with their husbands, “Family” and added a lipstick emoji.

Ora has already publicly denied she is “Becky’’ by tweeting, last week, “I never usually address tabloid gossip but let me be clear, these rumors are false. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Beyoncé. Let’s continue enjoying Lemonade.”

However, fans could be excused for feeling at this stage that Beyonce and Rita Ora and Jay Z and everyone else invloved in the marketing of Bey’s new opus are trying to have their Lemonade and drink it too.

After all, it was Ora who stoked the media fires by posting a picture of herself in a bikini wearing lemons, riffing on the title of Beyonce’s controversial album, and then shared an image of a poster from the Elizabeth Taylor film Ash Wednesday, which, older readers may recall, was about a woman trying to save her marriage to her uninterested husband.

So, dare we ask, was the whole thing just a ploy to sell more product?

Have we—gasp—been played?

Shocked!

Rumors of a relationship between Jay Z and Ora go back to when Jay signed Ora to Roc Nation. Their professional relationship turned bad when Ora sued the label in order to be released from her deal, and Jay Z’s label countersued claiming breach of contract.

However, all that seems forgotten now.

It is heart-warming, however, even the most cynical must agree, that this year’s Met Ball should have provided the occasion for the soothing of celebrity marital strife, as it was after last year’s Met Ball that stories concerning potential trouble in the relationship between Jay Z and Beyoncé first became public, after Solange Knowles, Beyoncé’s sister, memorably attacked Jay in an elevator.

This year, they took the stairs.

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Tom SykesEuropean Editor at Large

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