The security guard at the centre of the controversy involving Chappell Roan and Jude Law’s 11-year-old daughter Ada has spoken publicly for the first time, backing up the singer’s account and taking full personal responsibility for the incident.
Pascal Duvier, identified by the Daily Mail as the guard who confronted Ada and her mother Catherine Harding at a hotel in São Paulo, Brazil on 21 March, broke his silence on Instagram on Wednesday.
His statement was direct: he was not working for Roan, and his actions were his own.
“I take full responsibility for the interactions on March 21st. I was at the hotel on behalf of another individual, and I was not part of the personal security team of Chappell Roan,” he wrote.
“The actions I took were not on behalf of Chappell Roan, her personal security team, her management, or any other individuals.”
Duvier said he had made a judgement call based on information from the hotel, events he had witnessed in the preceding days and what he described as a heightened security risk at the location.
He characterised his approach to Harding as calm and well-intentioned, while acknowledging the outcome was regrettable.
“My sole interaction with the mother was calm and with good intentions, and the outcome of the encounter is regretful,” he wrote.
He also pushed back against what he described as false and defamatory claims circulating online.
The incident had exploded into public view over the weekend when Ada’s stepfather, Brazilian footballer Jorginho Frello, posted a lengthy account on Instagram accusing Roan’s security of aggressively confronting his wife and daughter after Ada simply walked past the singer’s breakfast table to check whether it was her.
Ada had not spoken to Roan, taken a photo or asked for anything.
“My daughter got super scared and cried a lot,” Frello wrote. “Without your fans you would be nobody,” he added, addressing Roan directly.
Roan responded swiftly with an Instagram video, insisting the guard had no connection to her personal team and that she had not seen Ada or Harding at all during breakfast.
“I do not hate children, like, that is crazy,” she said.
Harding subsequently shared her own account, expressing doubt about whether the guard was truly unconnected to Roan, noting that she knew he was not hotel security but rather someone who “looks after artists.”
She stopped short of blaming Roan directly but suggested celebrities bear responsibility for those acting in their vicinity.
“I would like to hope not,” she said of whether Roan had directed the guard, “but at the same time, I think that you have a responsibility when you are a celebrity to make sure that the people who work for you and act on your behalf are acting on your behalf.”
Roan’s team doubled down in a statement to Page Six on Tuesday.
“Chappell was not aware of any interaction between this mother/daughter and a third-party security officer,” a representative said, adding that the singer has “zero tolerance for aggressive behavior toward her or her fans.”
