Rita Ora admits mother’s cancer battle led to her suffering from hypochondria

Rita Ora has admitted she has suffered from hypochondria following her mother Vera’s cancer battle.

Rita Ora developed hypochondria after her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis.

The 34-year-old singer was just 13 in 2005 when he mother Vera was diagnosed with the disease and witnesses the health battle – which included a partial mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation – resulted in Rita developing anxiety about her own wellbeing.

She told Davina McCall’s Begin Again podcast: “It’s insane the ratings and the percentages of breast cancer and that definitely got me worried and checked and going to get my checks regularly and and it kind of trickled into my own health I guess because I was definitely seeing the whole experience with my mother.

“I definitely wanted to be there for her so I didn’t realise actually that that was a thing until I started therapy.

“I was like ‘Oh maybe I’m going to the doctors too many times.’ But I do believe that is the reason because I saw that happen and that whole treatment process.”

Rita admitted she struggled to witness Vera – who was 39 at the time, and has been cancer-free since 2010 – dealing with something so serious.

She added: “It was tough seeing something that you believe has always and is always going to be there just sort of like crumble in front of you.

“Even when you’re a kid, I was a teenager, I was 13 and I was very confused.

“I wanted to be with her all the time but she wanted me to go to school you know, I was going to a really great school that they were paying for amongst all of the treatments that she was doing, it was a really hard time for my parents.”

Meanwhile, the Let You Love Me hitmaker revealed how her mother is still dealing with PTSD from her health battle, and there is still a “never ending fear” when it’s time for her regular check-ups.

She said: “She still feels that way too when she gets her checkups, you have to always have your regular checkups and my mother always has that fear just during that period of what if and of course that’s PTSD.

“God knows what that must have felt like to go through it but yeah, it’s a never ending fear that will happen when you have that one lifechanging experience.”