'Didn't want to be the dutiful wife': Taika Waititi's ex gets candid about their marriage

Taika Waititi's ex-wife Chelsea Winstanley hasn't held back, delivering a scathing review of their marriage. 

Before the New Zealand director started seeing Rita Ora, he was married to Winstanley from 2011 to 2018.

In a rare interview on new podcast It's Personal, the film producer has spoken candidly about their relationship.

"I think I was married to someone who really was just on their own buzz, and [had] tunnel vision for whatever reasons," Winstanley said.

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"It's nice to have someone who can support you, or just to go, 'You got this' or 'I'm so proud of you'. But there was never any of that.

"There was no interest in what I wanted to be doing. So that said volumes."

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The pair went their separate ways in 2018, but there still appears to be some bad blood, despite the couple sharing two young daughters.

The separation only hit the public domain in 2020, more than a decade before their initial meeting.

They met when Winstanley interviewed Waititi for a documentary, and they tied the knot in 2010. 

She explained their relationship began to come undone when her husband's fame and success skyrocketed, leaving her feeling as though she had to step back from her own work.

As an Academy Award nominee, Winstanley explained, "I didn't want to be the dutiful wife and race over to the Gold Coast where he was making Thor [Ragnarok] and sit in an apartment all day long f---ing twiddling my thumb[s]."

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"I mean, lots of other wives do that in other departments and they'll dutifully do that thing. But I couldn't think of anything f---ing worse to go to the Gold Coast. I'm sorry... and just do nothing?

"And also that would mean I have to take my babies out of kōhanga reo [Maori-speaking kindergarten]. And that to me was really important.

"So I said, 'I'm not going to do that, but we'll come over and visit'. That probably was the beginning of the unravelling because I wasn't that pandering, dutiful, get on my knees and [do] whatever you want."

"Someone else was, though," she added, possibly making reference to Waititi's new wife, British pop star Rita Ora. 

The pair confirmed the rumours of their budding relationship in 2021, posing arm-in-arm on a red carpet. 

Later that year, they were said to have gotten married, though neither confirmed it until January 2023 when Ora told Heart Radio Breakfast, "They say everything happens for a reason. I am officially off the market, people!"