Rita Ora and Conor McGregor both attended the British Fashion Awards at the iconic Royal Albert Hall in London on Monday night. They ended up at the same table, along with Lewis Hamilton, Irina Shayk, and Jourdan Dunn, and they spent some time talking during the show and even snapped a few photos together. And while those things normally wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, the two managed to spark quite a bit of controversy when Ora took two of the photos of her and McGregor and posted them on Twitter along with the caption, "Date night."
For those who don’t know much about McGregor’s life outside of the Octagon, he has a longtime girlfriend Dee Devlin, who has been by his side throughout his rise in the UFC. The couple welcomed their first child, son Conor Jr., to the world earlier this year, and all indications are that they are eventually going to tie the knot at some point in the near future.
With all of that in mind, there were a lot of people who were understandably confused when Ora put up her "Date night" tweet. A rep for Ora later told the Mirror that Ora didn’t mean to suggest she was actually on a date with McGregor.
"Date night is a figure of speech," the spokesperson said. "Rita also posted selfies with Donatella Versace as her real date and one with Jourdan Dunn as her date."
But there were still a lot of people who thought Ora’s tweet was disrespectful to McGregor, Devlin, and their relationship. They sounded off on Ora on Twitter and dragged her over the tweet.
Even McGregor’s UFC sparring partner Artem Lobov chimed in with a response to Ora’s tweet.
But Ora wasn’t the only one who caught hell over the tweet. While she bore the brunt of the social media backlash initially, there were plenty of people who took a second look at McGregor’s face—and his hand placement—in the photos with Ora and blamed him for the controversy they caused. People sounded off on him with plenty of "it takes two to tango" tweets.
Admittedly, Ora didn’t do her or McGregor any favors by going with the caption, "Date night." But maybe—and we know this is crazy talk, but…—just maybe, Ora and McGregor are just friends and just enjoyed each other’s company on Monday night in a friendly way. We know that’s not as juicy as the way this story is being spun, but it’s entirely possible that the two are texting each other now having a good laugh over all of this.
Whatever the case may be, Ora and McGregor don’t seem bothered by the backlash they’ve received. Ora has left her "Date night" tweet up, and the only thing McGregor had to say on Tuesday morning was this:
So it doesn’t look like either of them are going to lose any sleep over what social media thinks about a few photos they took at an awards show.
