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Keli Holiday detained at US border as Abbie Chatfield apologises over Trump post speculation
Keli Holiday was detained at the US border during a North American tour, prompting Abbie Chatfield to apologise over Trump post speculation.
Keli Holiday, one half of Peking Duk, has been barred from entering the US, setting off a fresh round of speculation that has now pulled his partner, Abbie Chatfield, into the story.
Holiday, whose real name is Adam Hyde, was in the middle of a North American tour when he was stopped at the US-Canada border on Friday, May 8, after a show in Toronto. He said he was detained despite having “the proper visa documentation”, later posting online that he had “spent all day detained at the Canadian border and denied entry back into the US.” He has since returned to Australia.
The timing of the ban quickly fed rumours that it was linked to a post Chatfield had made last summer about Donald Trump. On Tuesday, May 12, the podcaster and TV host issued an apology, saying the video had resurfaced and followed her around for months. “A video that I posted a year ago has come back to haunt me, essentially,” she said.
That original post had been a discussion of Luigi Mangione, the man accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024. Mangione is due to stand trial later this year. Chatfield said people had “conflated” Holiday’s ban with that video, but stressed that “no clear reason” had been given for the border decision. “I also want to make it clear Adam hadn’t even seen this video,” she added. “So any vitriol toward him is unwarranted.”
The episode lands at an awkward moment for Peking Duk, who are preparing to release their debut album, Paradise, on August 14. When the record was announced, the Canberra duo framed it as the end of one long chapter and the beginning of another: “After 16 amazing years, Adam and I have made the difficult decision to end this chapter of our lives…But deep down we know it’s time for us to evolve. So we finally made a move we thought we’d never make. We recorded an album.”
Outside the band, the week has also been defined by the strange overlap between pop culture, politics and provocation. Mark Hamill deleted an AI-generated image of Trump dead in a grave with the caption “If Only,” after the White House branded him a “deranged lunatic.” Rod Stewart, meanwhile, told King Charles to “put that little ratbag in his place,” referring to the President. Trump himself has claimed his own dance moves to the Village People’s Y.M.C.A. helped push the song to the top of the charts “for months.”
