Chappell Roan has responded after Brazilian soccer star Jorginho Frello accused her security of speaking “extremely aggressively” to his 11-year-old daughter at a hotel in São Paulo.
On Saturday, Frello posted a statement on Instagram describing a “very sad situation” that occurred while his wife and daughter were staying at the same hotel as Roan, who played Lollapalooza Brazil over the weekend.
According to Frello, his daughter saw Roan at breakfast but did not approach her. “She just passed by the singer’s table, looked over to confirm it was her, smiled, and went back to the table with her mom. She didn’t say anything, didn’t ask for anything,” he wrote. He then alleged that a member of Roan’s security team spoke “extremely aggressively” to the child and accused her of “disrespect” and “harassment” and threatened to file a complaint with the hotel. “My daughter got super scared and cried a lot,” Frello wrote. After backlash ensued on social media, the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro even weighed in, posting on X that “This young lady @ChappellRoan will never perform at Todo Mundo no Rio!”
On Sunday, Roan responded with a candid video on her Instagram Story in which she apologized and said that the security personnel who went up to Frello’s daughter was not her personal staff.
“I’m just gonna tell my half of the story of what happened today with a mother and child who were involved with a security guard who is not my personal security,” she said. “I didn’t even see. I didn’t even see a woman and a child. Like, I did not. No one came up to me. No one bothered me.”
Roan continued, “Like, I was just sitting at breakfast in my hotel. I think these people were staying at the hotel as well. So the fact that like, a security guard who is — I did not ask the security guard to go up and talk to this mother and child. I did not. They did not come up to me. They weren’t doing anything. It’s unfair for security to just assume someone doesn’t have good intentions when they have no reason to believe because there’s no action even taken.”
The pop star, who has made headlines before about her boundaries with fan interactions and paparazzi — most recently during Paris Fashion Week — added: “And I do not hate people who are fans of my music. I do not hate children. Like, that is crazy. I’m sorry to the mother and child that someone was assuming something, that you would do something, and if you felt uncomfortable that makes me really sad. You did not deserve that.”
Other stars have come to Roan’s defense when it comes to her relationship with the spotlight. After the Paris Fashion Week incident — where she was filmed telling paparazzi and autograph seekers “I’m being disregarded as a human… I’ve asked these people several times to get away from me” — Noah Kahan wrote on Instagram that paps and scalpers should go “eat fucking nails.” Doja Cat also chimed in, praising Roan’s ability to be “uncomfortable, comfortably” in those situations.
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