Chappell Roan addressed outrage from fans after Brazilian soccer player Jorginho Frello accused the pop star’s security team of treating his 11-year-old daughter in a way that left her in tears and “extremely shaken.”
Frello said his wife, Catherine Harding, and daughter, whom Harding had with her ex Jude Law, were staying at the same hotel as Roan for Lollapalooza in São Paulo. He wrote in an Instagram story Saturday that a security guard approached them at breakfast and “began speaking in an extremely aggressive manner,” accusing his daughter of disrespecting and harassing Roan.
He wrote that his daughter, a fan who was excited to see Roan’s performance at Lollapalooza, had simply “walked past the singer’s table, looked to confirm it was her, smiled, and went back to sit with her mum. She didn’t say anything, didn’t ask for anything.”
In her own Instagram story Sunday morning, Roan said she “didn’t even see a woman and a child” and that the security guard in question was not her personal security staff.
“I did not ask the security guard to go up and talk to this mother and child. I did not,” Roan said. “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 “Pink Pony Club” singer then offered an apology to Frello’s family.
“I do not hate people who are fans of my music. I do not hate children, like that is crazy,” Roan said. “I’m sorry to the mother and child that someone was assuming something. … If you felt uncomfortable, that makes me really sad. You did not deserve that.”
In his statement Saturday, Frello said his daughter was “so happy to see an artist she really admires, or used to admire,” and that she had made a Roan-inspired sign in preparation for Lollapalooza. He included a picture of the hand-drawn sign.
But after she walked past Roan’s table, he wrote, the security guard threatened to file a complaint against her and Harding to the hotel “while my 11-year-old daughter was sitting there in tears.”
“It’s sad to see this kind of treatment coming from those who should understand the importance of fans. At the end of the day, they are the ones who build all of this,” Frello wrote. “I sincerely hope this serves as a moment of reflection. No one should have to go through this, especially not a child.”
He tagged Roan’s Instagram handle, adding: “WITHOUT YOUR FANS, YOU WOULD BE NOTHING. AND TO THE FANS, SHE DOES NOT DESERVE YOUR AFFECTION.”
Harding said in her own Instagram story Saturday evening that she and her daughter went out shopping and got dinner instead of seeing Roan perform, adding that the young girl no longer wanted to see the show after the way they were treated that morning.
After Frello’s statement, Eduardo Cavaliere, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, also weighed in online. He wrote on X that Roan is banned from performing at the city’s Todo Mundo No Rio music festival for as long as he remains mayor.
The incident comes a few weeks after a video circulated of Roan confronting a group of paparazzi in Paris where she pulled out her phone and began filming them back. She told her camera that she felt “disregarded as a human, and that she’s “asked these people several times to get away from me.”
“So I want all of you,” she said, gesturing to the photographers, “to please leave me alone and stop following me and harassing me.”
The star has been vocal about setting boundaries with the media and her fans, having previously called out fans for their “creepy behavior” toward her.
“I don’t agree with the notion that I owe a mutual exchange of energy, time, or attention to people I do not know, do not trust, or who creep me out—just because they’re expressing admiration,” Roan wrote in a 2024 Instagram post, adding that this “has nothing to do with the gratitude and love I feel for my community, for the people who respect my boundaries.”
