Photo: Getty Images
Kelly Rowland has addressed her viral moment at the Cannes Film Festival.
Rowland went viral after photos and videos surfaced of her heated exchange with a member of security on the red carpet for Tuesday's (May 21) premiere of Marcello Mio at Cannes.
The singer appeared to yell and wave her finger at the guard ushering people inside the venue. The exact exchange between the staffer and Rowland remained unclear without audio from the footage that was circulated on social media.
Reports surfaced that red carpet security was "being aggressive" with Rowland, leading to the verbal dispute.
"The people who are assigned to helping stars walk the red carpet were being aggressive and Kelly was trying to ignore it," a source told the Daily Mail. "By the time she got to the last woman she had had it because she scolded Kelly and told her to move when she was trying to wave to fans and help the paparazzi get their shot."
"She doesn’t care if she comes across like a diva if she knows that she is advocating for herself. She isn’t fake and wanted to set a clear boundary," the source added.
Rowland told the Associated Press that she stands by her decision to call out the staffer's behavior.
“The woman knows what happened, I know what happened,” Rowland said. “I have a boundary and I stand by those boundaries and that is it.”
The singer added that there were “other women that attended that carpet who did not quite look like me and they didn’t get scolded or pushed off or told to get off.”
“I stood my ground and she felt like she had to stand hers,” Rowland said.
Social media users and lip-reading experts shared their theories of what was said during the red-carpet exchange. Several believe Rowland told security: "Don't talk to me like that. Don't talk to me like that. You're not my momma. I told you not to talk to me like that."
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