Kelly Rowland explains viral clash with Cannes security: ‘I stand by those boundaries’

“There were other women that attended that carpet who did not quite look like me and they didn’t get scolded or pushed off,” Rowland said.

Kelly Rowland is opening up about the now-viral confrontation she had with security personnel at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

At the premiere of “Marcello Mio” on May 21, the Destiny’s Child alum, 43, was pictured taking photos and smiling at the cameras on the red carpet. As Rowland walks up the carpet stairs, a security staffer is shown ushering her into the screening. At one point, the singer has a heated exchange with the staffer before turning away from her and continuing to walk into the building.

Rowland defended her actions Thursday in a red carpet interview with the Associated Press.

“The woman knows what happened. I know what happened,” Rowland said when asked what happened during the exchange. “And I have a boundary, and I stand by those boundaries. And that is it.”

The “Motivation” singer implied that racial discrimination may have played a role in the staffer’s behavior, saying 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,” she concluded, “and she felt like she had to stand hers.”

Rowland didn’t let the incident stop her from enjoying her time at Cannes. The “Survivor” singer returned to the red carpet for the premiere of “The Count of Monte-Cristo” a couple of days after the exchange.

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Cannes organizers haven’t responded to the incident or Rowland’s explanation.

Rowland has focused on the film industry this year, marked by her appearance at Cannes and her role in Tyler Perry’s “Mea Culpa.” The singer produced “Mea Culpa,” alongside Perry, and starred as Mea in the film, which became the No. 1 movie on Netflix after its release in February.

She said Perry sent her the script. “I saw it was an erotic thriller, [and] it scared the mess out of me,” Rowland told MovieWeb about her experience with the legal drama. “And at first I said, ‘No.’ I called a friend of mine. They said, ‘If it doesn’t scare you, what’s the purpose of doing it?’ So, I phoned them back and said, ‘Yes.’”