Rita Ora's 30th Birthday Party Cost a Whopping $10,000 in Coronavirus Fines

Sometimes pop star and forever Instagram picture-taker Rita Ora spent her first few days as a 30-year-old forking over cash for a hefty fine she incurred from a 30-person blowout party in West London on Saturday, November 28. In the immortal words of her hit single “Anywhere”… “Take me anywhere, anywhere, anywhere I don’t have to pay this money!”

Daily Mail reports that the singer voluntarily paid the $10,000 fine after breaking U.K. lockdown restrictions with her 30-person birthday at Casa Cruz in Notting Hill, West London. Police arrived on the scene around 9 p.m., and according to the outlet, will continue their “investigation” this week. Sources “close” to Ora tell the paper there were really only seven of them at the restaurant, but her willingness to pay the fine tells a different story. (Or, perhaps, she just needed to remedy the bad press, regardless of the guest list.)

Ora also released an official apology over on Instagram this morning. In it, she apologized for her “misguided view” that the restrictions had been lifted. “I’m deeply sorry for breaking the rules and in turn understand that this puts people at risk,” she wrote. “This was a serious and inexcusable error of judgement.”

Footage from the party is still up on her Instagram, sans those 30 thirty people I’ve heard so much about:

In all, Ora’s decision to throw a party in the lockdown cost her, not because throwing parties is illegal, really, but because she is famous, and it sets a precedent for her dozen or so fans. Besides, it’s not the most expensive celebrity birthday bash ever thrown, especially among Ora’s pop star cohort. Nothing a few sponsored posts can’t remedy.