Chappell Roan talks about security guard’s encounter with 11-year-old fan that left child ‘in tears’
Chappell Roan spoke of fans’ anger after Brazilian footballer 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 “very shaken.”
Frello said his wife, Catherine Harding, and daughter, Harding had with Jude Law, were staying at the same hotel as Roan from Lollapalooza in São Paulo. She wrote in an Instagram story on Saturday that a security guard came to them during breakfast and “started talking aggressively,” accusing her daughter of disrespecting and harassing Roan.
He wrote that his daughter, a fan who was excited to see Roan perform at Lollapalooza, simply “passed by the artist’s table, checked to make sure it was him, smiled, went back to sit with her mother. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t ask anything.”
In his Instagram story on Sunday morning, Roan said he “didn’t even see the woman and the child” and that the security guard in question was not his security guard.
“I didn’t ask the security guard to come up and talk to the mother and the child, I didn’t,” said Roan. “They didn’t come to me. They didn’t do anything. It’s not right for the security forces to just assume that someone doesn’t have good intentions when they have no reason to believe, because no action is taken.”
The “Pink Pony Club” singer then apologized to Frello’s family.
“I don’t hate people who are fans of my music. I don’t hate kids, that’s crazy,” said Roan. “I’m sorry to the mother and the child that they were considering something. … If you’re not comfortable, that makes me very sad. You didn’t deserve that.”
In a statement Saturday, Frello said her daughter was “excited to see an artist she really likes, or used to like,” and that she made a sign inspired by Roan in preparation for Lollapalooza. He also included a picture of a hand-drawn sign.
But after passing Roan’s desk, she wrote, the security guard threatened to file a complaint against her and Harding at the hotel “while my 11-year-old daughter sat there in tears.”
“It’s sad to see this kind of treatment coming from those who should understand the value of the fans. After all, they are the ones who created all of this,” Frello wrote. “I hope this will be a time of reflection. No one should have to go through this, especially a child.”
She tagged Roan’s handle on Instagram, adding: “Without your fans, YOU ARE NOTHING. AND FANS DON’T DESERVE YOUR LOVE.”
Harding said in her Instagram story on Saturday evening that she and her daughter went out shopping and got dinner instead of seeing Roan play, adding that the little girl didn’t even want 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 went online. He wrote in X that Roan is banned from performing at the city’s Todo Mundo No Rio event as long as he is mayor.
This incident comes a few weeks after a video of Roan confronting a group of paparazzi in Paris where he took out his phone and started filming. He told his camera that he felt “disrespected as a person, and that he had “asked these people many times to break up with me.”
“So I want all of you,” he said, gesturing to the photographers, “please stop me and stop following me and harassing me.”
The star has been very vocal about setting boundaries with the media and her fans, previously calling out fans for their “horrific behavior” towards her.
“I don’t agree with the idea that I owe an exchange of energy, time, or attention to people I don’t know, don’t trust, or who take me out – just because they express admiration,” Roan wrote in a 2024 Instagram post, adding that this “has nothing to do with the gratitude and love I have for my community, for people who respect my boundaries.”
