Pop star and Masked Singer judge Rita Ora was overcome with shock when her film director husband Taika Waititi was revealed as a surprise guest on the US edition of the show.
The popular series sees mystery celebrities perform hit songs while disguised in elaborate costumes, as the panel of judges decipher their real identities based on their voices and a series of clues.
Waititi, who won an Oscar for his Nazi-era comedy Jojo Rabbit in 2020, took to the stage dressed as a new character, Lucky Duck, on Wednesday (30 April).
Viewers had been waiting to see which contestants would make it through to the series 13 final when Lucky Duck interrupted the show’s host, Nick Cannon, and announced they’d be unmasked – in place of any of the semi finalists – after a surprise dance routine.
Lucky Duck gave Ora, 34, and her fellow judges, musician Robin Thicke, 48, comedian Ken Jeong, 55, and model Jenny McCarthy, 52, a series of clues to aid their guesses at who he was.
“As good as I am, this detective-ing thing is only a hobby. I spend most of my time on massive movie sets. Yes, even bigger than The Hangover. There’s not an Oscar I don’t know,” he said.
After performing a choreographed routine to Queen’s “I Want to Break Free”, Waititi pulled off his duck costume to reveal his face.
Ora’s mouth dropped open in shock, while Waititi told the show’s producers: “You guys got her working so hard, I never get to see her.”
When asked how he hid his appearance from his wife, the director quipped in response: “How I kept the secret? She’s always here.”
Waititi, a celebrated filmmaker, won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2020 Oscars for his comedy, JoJo Rabbit, which follows a young Nazi and his imaginary friend Adolf Hitler as they navigate the Second World War.
Ora and the director met at a barbecue in 2018 and shortly became friends. But it wasn’t until 2021, when they were both filming in Australia, that they started a romantic relationship.
Ora proposed to Waititi while they were on holiday in Palm Springs in 2022. They got married a few weeks later in Los Angeles.
The couple planned their wedding in just two weeks, with Ora wearing a Tom Ford dress she found in-store just days before the relaxed ceremony, they previously told Vogue.
As Luck Duck was unmasked in The Masked Singer semi-final, Boogie Woogie, Coral, Mad Scientist Monster and Pearl will all compete for The Golden Mask trophy in the two-hour series’ finale on May, 7.
