Maryann Rolle, the owner of Exuma Point Bar and Grille in the Bahamas who dipped into her life savings to pay employees after the Fyre Festival disaster, wants to see the festival’s co-founder, Ja Rule, put his money where his mouth is.
Responding to Ja Rule’s recent apology, Rolle expressed her desire to see the rapper offer more than just a verbal response, stating that she believes he should donate $100,000 to her GoFundMe page.
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“I feel from the bottom of his heart, he is sorry,” Rolle told TMZ. “I don’t know if he was aware of the pain and hard work that I went through because he was in the front line of everything but I am glad he is aware of it and he did apologize so that in itself speaks volumes. He cares.”
Despite his verbal apology, however, Rolle wants to see action as well, noting that Ja Rule is not among the thousands of people to donate to her recently created GoFundMe page, which she started in the hopes of bulking up her live savings again. Since its creation on January 14, Rolle’s campaign has raised more than $175,000 from viewers of Netflix‘s documentary.
“If he’s sorry, he should be donating something to me,” she told the outlet. “Sorry is more than a word, it’s an action. I hope he puts his sorry into action.”
Rolle added that she “would hope he would donate $100,000,” which she would then use to “bless some folks here in the Bahamas,” many of whom also went unpaid after the Fyre Festival failed.
Rolle’s story was detailed in Netflix’s newest documentary, Fyre Festival: The Greatest Party that Never Happened. Detailing her heartbreaking ordeal, Rolle explained that she had drained her $50,000 life savings to feed staffers and attendees who were stranded on Great Exuma during the April 2017 event. She never saw a penny in return from the event’s organizers, who she claimed “just wiped it out and never looked back.”
In response to the public outcry from viewers of the documentary, Ja Rule issued Rolle a public apology, which he posted to his various social media accounts.
“My heart goes out to this lovely lady… MaryAnne Rolle,” he wrote. “We’ve never met but I’m devastated that something that was meant to be amazing, turn out to be such a disaster and hurt so many ppl… SORRY to anyone who has been negatively effected by the festival (sic).”
Just as Rolle does, many fans responded to the apology criticizing the rapper for not righting his wrongs by making a donation to her GoFundMe.
