Nearly a month after the widely publicized incident in which his daughter claimed that Chappell Roan’s bodyguard behaved aggressively toward her during Lollapalooza weekend in Brazil, football star Jorginho Frello has issued a statement saying he “regrets the impact” the situation created for the singerl
“I would like to give an update on what happened during Lolla weekend, as we have been seeing and hearing a lot over the past few weeks and felt it was important to clarify everything now that new information has come to light,” he wrote.
“I made my initial statement in the heat of the moment, after hearing that my child and wife had been approached by an adult male security guard in an intimidating way. I reacted as any father would. My priority is, and always will be, protecting my family, and that is exactly what I did.
“I also want to make clear that the situation did occur as it was originally described. At the time, we acted on the information that was available to us.
“Since then, I have become aware of new information that has changed my understanding of parts of what happened. Chappell Roan made a public statement, reached out privately to Catherine, and our teams also spoke directly. It became clear that she had no knowledge of what took place at breakfast and had not asked anyone to approach them. She was understanding and sympathetic to what had happened to our child.
“The security guard himself has since confirmed publicly that he was representing another artist at the hotel at the time. While we still do not know what prompted him to approach them, and do not believe an 11-year-old at breakfast could reasonably be seen as any kind of security threat, it is now clear that he was not acting on behalf of Chappell.
“It was, ultimately, a misunderstanding in that respect, and I am glad to set the record straight. It’s important to me that this is clarified fairly and accurately. I regret the impact this situation has had on Chappell Roan, Catherine, Ada, and our family.
“I will always stand up for my family. But I also know how to recognize when things were not quite what they seemed at first.
“Thank you for the support we received during this sensitive moment. I do, however, want to make one thing very clear: I do not support or encourage hate speech or online attacks from any side. Respect, empathy, and humility are values I carry and teach my family every single day.
“As far as I am concerned, this matter is closed.”
At the time of this article’s publication, it was not clear why Frello took nearly a month to clear up the situation publicly.
Late last month, after Roan’s performance at Lollapalooza in Brazil, she and Frello were staying in the same hotel, and Frello posted that 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!”
Later, 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.”
The incident led to an onslaught of online negativity about Roan’s behavior that, as Frello has finally conceded, was misplaced.
Source: Read Full Article
