Earlier this week, Brazilian footballer Jorginho Frello called out Chappell Roan on Instagram, alleging that the artist’s security spoke to his wife and 11-year-old daughter “in an extremely aggressive manner” at a São Paulo hotel. Today, Roan responded to the allegations in a video posted to her Instagram story.
In his post, shared in both Portuguese and English, Frello said that his family had been staying at the same hotel as Roan ahead of Lollapalooza Brasil, which the singer headlined on Saturday, March 21. According to Frello, after his daughter “walked past the singer’s table, looked to confirm it was her, smiled, and went back to sit with her mum” at breakfast, a security guard approached them and accused them of harassing and disrespecting the artist. Frello said that the individual also threatened to file a complaint with the hotel, and that the incident left his daughter “in tears” and “extremely shaken.”
“I’ve lived with football, public exposure, and well-known people for many years, and I understand very well what respect and boundaries are. What happened there was not that. It was just a child admiring someone,” Frello wrote. “It’s sad to see this kind of treatment coming from those who should understand the importance of fans.” After Frello shared his post, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Cavaliere, said that Roan would not be permitted to perform at the city’s annual Todo Mundo no Rio event while he is in office.
In a video shared today, March 22, Roan shared her side of the story, noting that the security guard in question was not her personal security, and that she never saw a mother and child approach her. “They did not come up to me. They weren’t doing anything,” Roan stated. “It’s unfair for security to just assume someone doesn’t have good intentions when they have no reason to believe [that].” Pitchfork has reached out to Roan’s representatives for comment.
Roan concluded: “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 that if you felt uncomfortable, that makes me really sad. You did not deserve that.”
The singer has long been a proponent of strict boundaries between celebrities, fans, and paparazzi. Earlier this month, Roan filmed an encounter in Paris with a group of photographers and fans she said followed and harassed her after multiple requests to stop. At the 2024 MTV Music Video Awards, she also famously confronted a red carpet photographer who told her to “shut the fuck up,” responding: “You shut the fuck up.” Her stance has drawn support from artists like Sabrina Carpenter and Noah Kahan, as well as criticism from the likes of Boy George, who recently urged her via X to “cheer up…the world is at your feet stop kicking it!”
Roan hasn’t released a new album since her 2023 debut, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, but she has shared a number of singles, including “Good Luck, Babe,” “The Giver,” and “The Subway.” She has also toured extensively over the past few years. During her Lollapalooza Brasil set, she thanked her crew, security team, and band for making her show possible, noting: “I do not know when I’ll be going on tour again, so this is the last one. I’m so grateful it’s here.”
