‘I don’t hate children’: Chappell Roan hits back at soccer star’s claims

Pop star Chappell Roan has rejected claims from Brazilian soccer player Jorginho Frello that her security team spoke in “an extremely aggressive manner” to his wife and daughter while the pair were staying at the same hotel as the singer.

Frello alleged the incident occurred during breakfast in a São Paulo hotel, after his daughter “simply walked past the singer’s table, looked to confirm it was her, smiled, and went back to sit with her mum”, he said in an Instagram story on Saturday.

The child wasn’t named, but Frello is married to Catherine Hardy, who shares an 11-year-old daughter named Ada Law with her former partner, British actor Jude Law. The family were staying in the hotel to attend the Lollapalooza Brazil festival, where Roan is headlining.

“What happened next was completely disproportionate. A large security guard came over to their table while they were still having breakfast and began speaking in an extremely aggressive manner to both my wife and daughter, saying that she shouldn’t allow my daughter to ‘disrespect’ or ‘harass’ other people,” Frello said on Saturday, attaching an image of his daughter holding a sign she made to see Roan.

“He even said he would file a complaint against them with the hotel, while my 11-year-old daughter was sitting there in tears. My daughter was extremely shaken and cried a lot.

“Without your fans, you would be nothing, and to the fans, she does not deserve your attention.”

The Pink Pony Club artist responded overnight on Sunday (AEDT) via her Instagram story, saying the guards involved were not part of her personal security team and apologised over the incident.

“I’m just going to 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 a woman and a child. Like, no one came up to me. No one bothered me. I was just sitting at breakfast in my hotel. I think these people were staying at the hotel as well.

“I did not ask the security guard to go up and talk to this mother and child. 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. I do not hate people who are fans of my music. I do not hate children. Like that is crazy.”

Roan apologised to the mother and child in the post, saying that she assumed the incident had left them uncomfortable. “You did not deserve that,” she said.

Mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Cavaliere took to X to weigh in on the incident, cancelling Roan from performing at the festival Todo Mundo in Rio – even though she is not actually on the bill – and said headliner Shakira would never do that.

“I want to say that as long as I’m in charge of our city – this girl [Chappell Roan] will never perform at Todo Mundo in Rio! I doubt Shakira would do that! Besides, [Jorginho Frello], your little one is already a guest of honour of the organisation in May,” Cavaliere said in the post, which has been translated from Portuguese to English via Google Translate.

Roan is famously outspoken about her issues with paparazzi and fans crossing boundaries, previously calling out their “predatory behaviour”, including stalking and online harassment.

“If you saw a random woman on the street, would you yell at her from your car window?” she said on TikTok last August.

“Would you harass her in public? Would you go up to a random lady and say, ‘Can I take a photo with you?’ and she says, ‘No, what the f---?’, and then you get mad at this random lady? I’m a random b----, you’re a random b----. Just think about that for a second.”