Piers Morgan has made it clear he’s absolutely not buying Rita Ora’s apology, following the singer’s lockdown birthday celebration.
Earlier this week, the I Will Never Let You Down singer made a public apology, after her 30th birthday gathering made front page news, as it went against England’s lockdown restrictions.
Posting an apology on Instagram, Rita said she was “deeply sorry for breaking the rules” and called her “spur of the moment decision” to attend the party an “inexcusable error of judgment”.
Discussing the matter during Tuesday’s edition of Good Morning Britain, Piers dismissed the apology, suggesting the chart-topping star was actually just “deeply sorry you got caught”.
Referring to Rita’s mother, who is a nurse, Piers said: “She spent most of the first wave of the pandemic speaking about her pride for the health service.
“She even launched a coronavirus range of clothing saying ‘stop the spread’… And then she invites 30 of her mates for her lockdown-breaking 30th birthday. What does her mum think about this?”
He continued: “It annoyed me because suddenly she’s ‘deeply sorry’ and volunteered to pay the £10,000 fine – which will barely touch the sides of her pocket money.
“What is she ‘deeply sorry’ about? She knew what she was doing, we are in a national lockdown – it’s not a secret!
“She’s a very rich pop star and she deliberately planned a 30th birthday party – I don’t know what the restaurant was thinking, so how are you able to do that? And why were you doing that?”
Piers added: “If [celebrities are] all doing that, if the rules aren’t for them, then what’s the point of the rules?
″’I’m deeply sorry’, what about? You’re not deeply sorry – you’re deeply sorry you got caught! That’s what you’re ‘deeply sorry’ about. If you hadn’t been caught would you be issuing a statement saying: ‘I’ve just woken up and realised what I did was terribly wrong and I’m deeply sorry’?”
Co-host Susanna Reid also repeated that Rita had said she went ahead with the gathering as it was so close to the end of lockdown, pointing out even when lockdown is over the party would still have violated restrictions.
In her apology, Rita had written: “Hello all, I attended a small gathering with some friends to celebrate my 30th birthday. It was a spur of the moment decision made with the misguided view that we were coming out of lockdown and this would be OK.
“I’m deeply sorry for breaking the rules and in turn understand that this puts people at risk. This was a serious and inexcusable error of judgment.”
Rita continued: “Given the restrictions, I realise how irresponsible these actions were and I take full responsibility. I feel particularly embarrassed knowing first-hand how hard people have worked to combat this terrible illness and being fully aware of the sacrifices that people and businesses have made to help keep us all safe.
“Even though this won’t make it right, I want to sincerely apologise.”
A No.10 spokesperson said prime minister Boris Johnson was “clear” that everyone needs to follow the restrictions, “including celebrities”, stressing that “it’s up to police to decide what action to take” if they are broken.
This statement was also given after controversial actor Laurence Fox was condemned on social media, having boasted of having a “large group” over for lunch, where they “hugged, ate and put the world to rights”.