What happened with singer Chappell Roan, a security guard and actor Jude Law’s daughter?

NEW YORK – Over the weekend, a fight began playing out on Instagram that reads like something of an international celebrity Mad Lib.

Brazilian-Italian football star Jorginho accused American singer Chappell Roan of sending a security guard to scold his 11-year-old stepdaughter, reducing the child to tears over breakfast at a hotel in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Roan said she was unaware of the incident.

Here are the details.

How did it start?

On March 21, Jorginho posted a lengthy Instagram story detailing an encounter he claimed his wife Catherine Harding, a British-Irish singer and former contestant of reality singing competition The Voice UK (2012 to present), and his stepdaughter had with Roan at a hotel in Sao Paulo.

The child’s father is English actor Jude Law, who dated Harding in 2014. Jorginho, who used to play for English Premier League clubs Chelsea and Arsenal, married Harding in June 2025.

Roan, 28, headlined the music festival Lollapalooza Brazil over the weekend, and Harding and the child were there to see her perform. The child, Jorginho wrote, walked by Roan’s table and smiled before returning to her own table with her mother, Harding.

Then, Jorginho wrote, a security guard came to his wife’s table and “began speaking in an extremely aggressive manner”, bringing the child to tears and accusing Harding of allowing her daughter to “disrespect” and “harass” other guests. The guard, Jorginho wrote, claimed he would be filing a complaint with the hotel.

The 34-year-old football player did not name the hotel, and representatives for Law, Harding, Jorginho and Roan did not respond to requests for comment for this piece.

What did Chappell Roan say?

In a now-expired Instagram story on March 22, Roan said she had not asked a security guard to intervene, that the person involved was not her “personal security” and that she was completely unaware of the incident.

“I didn’t even see a woman and a child,” Roan says in the video, filmed from bed. “No one came up to me. No one bothered me. I was just sitting at breakfast in my hotel.”

She added: “I do not hate people who are fans of my music. I do not hate children. 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.”

Has Harding weighed in?

Harding, who is in her 30s, posted a six-minute Instagram video on March 22 giving her account of the situation and appearing to imply, despite Roan’s claims, that the singer had a hand in the incident.

In the comments of the video, some people have defended Harding, applauding her for how she has handled the situation, while others have criticised her for appearing to stoke drama.

Anything else to know?

Mr Eduardo Cavaliere, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, denounced Roan on the social site X. He wrote that while he was in office, the Pink Pony Club (2020) pop star would not perform at Todo Mundo, a waterfront concert series in the city along the famed Copacabana beach that has previously drawn gigantic crowds for performers like American singers Madonna and Lady Gaga. There are currently no public plans for Roan to perform at the event. NYTIMES