James Charles says ‘disgusting’ Tati Westbrook drama implies ‘gay men are all predatory’
Tati Westbrook and James Charles. (Screen captures via YouTube)
Surprise, reader, thought you’d seen the last of the James Charles and Tati Westbrook drama?
Earlier this year, the two YouTubers were involved in a volatile feud which involved some accusations that Charles, 20, used his fame to manipulate heterosexual men.
Charles has since opened up in an interview with Paper magazine that as the saga swirled online, he was worried about the impact it would have on the wider community.
James Charles calls the implications of YouTuber’s accusations ‘very dangerous’.
Namely, that Westbrook’s claims fed into the narrative that gay men are ‘predatory’.
“What that statement implies is that gay men are all predatory, which is disgusting, not true and very dangerous to put out there.”
He continued: “The whole situation was scary for the LGBTQ+ community and paints a really bad picture of gay men.
“I guess my take away from what happened in May is that you never truly know who your real friends are.
“Losing millions and millions of subscribers and losing a lot of other ‘friends’ that I once thought I was so close to in the community within literally minutes over false accusations really showed me who the true people in my life are.
“And how to really judge somebody and their character.”
‘I thought by this time I’d be completely good — back to normal, if you will — and that’s not the case’.
Moreover, Charles explained that his thesis-long video in response to Westbrook’s was filmed not in spite, but to clear his name.
“I could’ve easily continued to fuel the fire and thrown back a million other accusations,” James said.
“We chose to keep it to the facts and really work on addressing the issues at hand with my fanbase that I knew I needed to clear up, rather than just creating more fight.”
James Charles arrives for the 2019 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2019, in New York. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty)
During the drama, Charles said his manager took away his phone in an attempt to shield him from the backlash, which saw his subscriber count plunge by one million in less than 24 hours.
“I’m not mentally in a place where I want to be,” James said, half a year on since the feud.
“I thought by this time I’d be completely good — back to normal, if you will — and that’s not the case.”
Wait, what happened between James Charles and Tati Westbrook?
Charles credited Westbrook, who founded hair vitamin brand Halo Beauty, with being the reason he got into makeup in the first place.
But the vlogger ruptured his friendship when he plugged a rival brand on his Instagram.
Westbrook, eyes red from crying, slammed the beauty star on Instagram, and Charles quickly apologised.
The nearly 43 minute-long video titled ‘BYE SISTER…’ was Westbrook’s weighted response to his apology as well as and several other things.
It totalled more than 50 million views.
James Charles in his ‘No More Drama’ video. (YouTube)
There was a lot to unpack in the video, but one pivotal allegation was he made inappropriate advances on several heterosexual men, something he admitted to in his second response.
While the odyssey briefly burnt a hole in his reputation, Charles has since bounced back.
His subscriber count has returned to the same name number as it was before.
