The backlash against Chappell Roan following an incident between a security guard and the stepdaughter of footballer Jorginho was fuelled by a bot-driven smear campaign, a data analytics company has claimed.
On Sunday (March 22), the former Chelsea and Arsenal player accused a security guard of acting in an “aggressive” manner towards his 11-year-old stepdaughter Ada Law – the daughter of actor Jude — during breakfast at a São Paulo hotel.
Jorginho claimed that Ada, a big fan of Roan, “walked past the table” when she saw the singer – who was in Brazil for Lollapalooza Brasil – at breakfast. He alleged that a security guard went on to “berate” the family, leaving Ada in tears.
Roan addressed the claims, saying that she “didn’t even see” the incident take place and that the security guard wasn’t employed by her. And Catherine Harding, Jorginho’s wife and Ada’s mum, also shared a statement. She acknowledged Roan’s claim that the guard wasn’t her own security, but also said he wasn’t a security guard of the hotel.
Chappell Roan responds to the controversy involving a security guard confronting a young fan. pic.twitter.com/i3bNx7b9FS
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) March 22, 2026
“Did she send him to do it? Again, I don’t know,” she said. “Look, I would like to hope not, but at the same time, I think that you have a responsibility when you are a celebrity to make sure, I guess, that the people that work for you and that act on your behalf are acting on your behalf.”
She added: “For me, I feel like it really overstepped a boundary because he is quite an intimidating – he is very large.”
Harding also said that she and Ada went to the city specifically to see Roan perform after the tween received tickets for her birthday.
The guard, Pascal Duvier, has also spoken out about the controversy, saying that the “accusations” are “false” and “constitute defamation”. “I made a judgment call based on information we obtained from the hotel, events I had witnessed in the days prior and the heightened overall security risk of our location,” he went on. “My sole interaction with the mother was calm and with good intentions, and the outcome of the encounter is regretful”.
While Roan received plenty of backlash online and offline, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro even banning her from one of the city’s largest music events, a new report has suggested that much of the controversy may have been fuelled by bots.
The data analytics company GUDEA looked at 100,030 posts across social media platforms from March 20 to March 22. The posts were generated by 54,334 users, but GUDEA found that 4.2 per cent of them, or around 2,282, were ‘non-typical’ – in other words, likely bots. These bots made up over 23 per cent, or 23,007 of the posts.
The report from GUDEA (via BuzzFeed News) stated that there was “significant misinformation” around the incident, and it continued: “Discourse ranged from legitimate fan criticism and debate about celebrity privacy vs. fan treatment, to coordinated attack campaigns and considerable satirical/humorous content that blurred the line with misinformation.”
Last year, GUDEA reported similar activity around an online conspiracy theory claiming that Taylor Swift was a Nazi. The bot army concerned was also involved in an astroturfing campaign against Blake Lively.
As for Roan, the former NME Cover star has routinely called out disrespectful behaviour from fans and the music industry, once controversially comparing fame to “an abusive ex-husband” in 2024.
She has also previously shared her thoughts on “weird” and “creepy” followers, calling out the “predatory behaviour” of so-called “superfans” that includes “nonconsensual physical and social interactions”, and also hit back at photographers who yelled at her on the VMAs red carpet.