Ja Rule has issued an apology to Fyre Festival caterer Maryann Rolle, who revealed in the Netflix documentary Fyre Festival: The Greatest Party that Never Happened that she lost $50,000 of her life savings as a result of the failed festival.
On Monday, the rapper, who co-founded the 2017 festival with now-imprisoned Billy McFarland, took to Instagram to pen an open apology to Rolle, the owner of Exuma Point Bar and Grille who was among a number of workers who had gone unpaid for their work during Fyre Festival.
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“My heart goes out to this lovely lady… MaryAnne Rolle,” Ja Rule captioned his Instagram post. “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).”
Rule’s apology fell on deaf ears, however, with fans taking to the comments section to slam the rapper for his insensitive words and demanding that he pay her for her work.
“I’m watching the documentary, i don’t feel bad for the so called ‘influencers’ I feel bad for her and only her. You should pay her back ASAP,” one person wrote.
“Then pay her what you owe and the rest of the labor on the island. It shouldn’t be up to a go fund me to pay her off,” another commented.
“Still looking for your name for a donation on her gofundme page but can’t seem to find it,” one person commented.
Ja Rule’s apology followed an earlier and just as controversial tweet in which he questioned why Fyre Festival attendees were fed cheese sandwiches if Rolle had been busy preparing food with 10 other employees.
Sooo did they have all this food or did they serve cheese sandwiches??? Asking for a friend… //t.co/kSIqgbtvwS
— Ja Rule (@Ruleyork) January 20, 2019
Rolle, who was hired to cater for Fyre Festival staffers, was forced to dip into her own savings to pay her employees after the festival’s organizers failed to pay her the money owed. Her heartbreaking story was detailed in the recently released Fyre Festival: The Greatest Party that Never Happened, in which she tearfully recounted the ordeal.
Although Rolle has yet to see a single penny of the money owed, and fans’ demands that Ja Rule apologize in the form of a signed check rather than a written apology, a GoFundMe page created by Rolle in an attempt to replenish her life savings has surpassed its $123,000 goal. Currently, more than $160,000 have been crowdfunded by fans who were touched by Rolle’s emotional appearance on the Netflix documentary.
