Kelly Rowland Stood Her Ground on the Cannes Red Carpet

Despite tabloids being quick to label Kelly Rowland a diva after two recent appearances, it seems that, in actuality, the former Destiny’s Child member might just be good at enforcing her boundaries when she feels she’s been disrespected. On Tuesday night during the premiere of Marcello Mio, Rowland made headlines after she appeared to get into an argument with a Cannes Film Festival usher on the red carpet. The staffer could be seen touching Rowland as she was rushed up the stairs of the Palais des Festivals. But in a video interview posted to AP’s Instagram on Thursday, Rowland alleged that the usher had slighted her during the exchange, saying, “The woman knows what happened, I know what happened. I have a boundary, and I stand by those boundaries, and that is it.”

“I stood my ground and she felt like she had to stand hers,” the singer added.

Rowland went on to suggest that the incident was racially motivated, considering “other women that attended that carpet who did not quite look like me … didn’t get scolded or pushed off or told to get off.” In fact, this would hardly be the first time that racism has arisen as a central issue at Cannes: In 2022, freelance film critic Valerie Complex wrote of the many microaggressions she experienced while reporting at the festival for Deadline in the years prior, during which she says she was mistaken for a ticket scalper and subjected to “random” bag searches.

While the Hollywood Reporter noted that red-carpet security at Cannes is often beholden to a strict timeline — and that it’s “not uncommon” for festival ushers to hurry attendees into theaters for a prompt start time — this marks the second time this year that Rowland claims her boundaries have been crossed. In February, she walked off the set of the Today show reportedly due to “aggressive questioning” by host Savannah Guthrie. At the time, Rowland’s rep Yvette Noel-Schure felt compelled to defend her client’s integrity, telling ET, “After 28 years of knowing her, Kelly Rowland remains one of the kindest, most amiable humans I have ever met and have had the blessing to represent.” Perhaps the rest of us should be inclined to believe her, too.

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