Law Roach Says Zendaya "Started to Suffer" After the Internet Blamed Her for His Retirement

It’s officially been a week since celebrity stylist Law Roach first sent the internet into a frenzy by sharing a shocking (and cryptic) Instagram post announcing his retirement, and now, he’s continuing to spill the tea surrounding all that went down both before and after he made his decision. 

Just days after joining The Cut’s Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Peoples to clarify that he only intends to step back from celebrity styling, not the industry as a whole, Roach appeared on Emily Ratajkowski’s podcast, High Low With EmRata, to chat about how the internet’s initial reaction to his announcement impacted his close friend and longtime client, Zendaya.

After explaining that he hadn’t notified Zendaya of the decision prior to sharing the news publicly, Roach said “it was tough for her” to grapple with his surprising career update at first.

“She calls [and] she said, 'Girl, I thought we'd make big decisions together,'" he told Ratajkowski. "She, of course, supported me. She's like, 'Do you need me to send you on a vacation? Tell me what you're going through.' And I, you know, talk to her about just being unhappy for a really long time and still grieving the death of my nephew ... And she was like, 'Whatever you need, whatever you need.'”

The former stylist then touched on rumors that circulated shortly after he made his announcement, many of which wrongfully suggested that a rift with Zendaya caused him to retire. 

“The internet is cruel. It's really cruel. So people started to blame her for my retirement and that wasn't fair to her," Roach said. "And the things they were saying, of course, [aren't] true. So that spilled over to my suffering, she started to suffer too. And I didn't think that was fair. Because she has always protected me in this industry. And vice versa.”

In addition to setting the record straight on the podcast, Roach also took to Twitter to defend the Euphoria actress through a series of tweets shortly before the appearance. “So y'all really think I'm breaking up with Z,” he tweeted. “We are forever!”

He followed it up with a separate tweet stating, “She’s my little sister and it’s real love not the fake industry love.”