The Drama! The Messiness! The YouTube Subscribers! New Details On The Tati Westbrook And James Charles Feud
The saga continues.
Tati Westbrook and James Charles are continuing to trade barbs in the media, and thanks to the latest salvo from Tati Westbrook, James Charles has lost nearly 3 million subscribers on YouTube. What's the latest in the Tati Westbrook and James Charles feud?
Let’s look at what we know so far.
1. Tati Westbrook fired the first shot.
As we’d previously reported, the 37-year-old model and influencer fired the first shot at James Charles when she took to her YouTube page to record a video called “Bye, Sister,” in which she aired all her grievances out against the makeup artist.
Apparently, James Charles was advertising Sugar Bear Hair gummy vitamins, a competitor of Tati's Halo Beauty supplements, at Coachella. While he’d subsequently deleted the video, Tati said that she “felt betrayed” by Charles’ actions.
"Tati said that she felt ‘used’ because she and her husband have negotiated deals on James' behalf, have mentored James, and have nurtured James. Tati promoted James' palette on her channel and constantly plugged his Morphe discount code in her videos," we’d reported, via Buzzfeed.
2. James Charles has tried to apologize for his mistakes.
You know that YouTube drama has gotten out of control when CNN jumps in the middle of it all.
According to CNN, James Charles has tried to take to his own social media accounts to appeal to Tati Westbrook’s mercy. He said that his career was based on “learning from his mistakes,” and he was sorry he’d brought any type of drama to Tati and her husband.
“To Tati and James Westbrook, I'm sorry for everything that is going on, everything that I've put you through over the past few weeks. Most of my career over the past few years has been about me making mistakes and trying to learn and grow from them. I haven't always done the best job of that, I can admit that. But I have always tried," he said.
3. Tati Westbrook also said that James Charles was being “sexually aggressive” with other men.
According to The Verge, there’s another element to the James Charles takedown that Tati Westbrook feels is important to convey: his sexual aggression toward other men. Charles, who identifies as gay, allegedly hit on straight waiters in a restaurant, all while completely ignoring their declared sexuality and discomfort with the attention. What’s more, according to Tati, James declared that he didn’t care whether the waiters wanted the sexual attention or not — he was going to continue to pursue them in a sexual way.
In this #MeToo era — when sexual agency and consent is tantamount — an accusation like this is a proverbial kiss of death for a career.
“Fighting with another YouTube creator gives viewers the opportunity to get involved and pick a side. That’s especially true when the situation appears to have an obvious victim and aggressor. Drama between friends can transform into a worldwide campaign for millions of strangers to stan a queen and cancel the culprit. This happens relatively often on YouTube, but it’s especially true within the beauty scene. Makeup channels are like soap operas on steroids,” reports The Verge.
4. Nikita Dragun tried to help James Charles — and it backfired spectacularly.
According to a new report by Buzzfeed, released just about an hour ago, Nikita Dragun has found herself caught in the middle of the James Charles and Tati Westbrook drama, albeit a bit unwillingly.
The outlet report that Dragun released screenshots of her conversations with Charles. Dragun was trying to prove that the Sugar Bear Hair “sponsorship” of James Charles was an “on the fly” type of thing, and “nothing shady.” Charles allegedly received no money for the posting of Sugar Bear Hair; rather, the company provided him security at Coachella in exchange for posting the brand on his Instagram story.
Unfortunately, Nikita’s attempt at helping Charles actually backfired because the makeup community feels that this “changes nothing” between James Charles and Tati Westbrook.
We’re sure this saga will continue to get worse as time goes on, so stay tuned for the latest.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. Find her online at www.bernadettegiacomazzo.com and www.longlivetheuprising.com.