James Charles and Tati Westbrook drama: All the tea being spilled
Tati Westbrook and James Charles have been shocking the beauty side of YouTube with drama for over a year now. The two iconic beauty gurus and former friends have had very public arguments and callouts which has left audiences subscribing and unsubscribing to their channels in waves.
The story starts back in May of 2019 and appears to not yet be finished. So, if you’re wondering what in the world is happening between these two influencers, let us give you the rundown.
How the two know one another
Tati Westbrook and James Charles used to be friends. Really good friends, in fact. So much so that Westbrook would even promote Charles on her channel with seemingly no benefit to herself. She’s also been said to have helped Charles with his career.
Westbrook, in April of 2019, made a teary Instagram story saying she felt used and abused by friends and the industry. While she didn’t name names, people wondered if she was referring to Charles who had recently promoted a vitamin which was a rival product to one she produced.
Shortly after that James Charles made a post online filled with a text apology to Tati Westbrook – it was apologizing for exactly what the internet had speculated Westbrook had been so upset about.
The beginning of the drama
The weird vitamin debacle really was only the precursor to the beginning. It wasn’t long until Tati Westbrook posted a YouTube video completely throwing James Charles under the bus.
Tati Westbrook accused Charles of a number of things in her video, including being unloyal, but the real issue which began the dramatic drop in James Charles’s subscribers was that she accused Charles of intentionally “trying to trick a straight man into thinking he’s gay”. She further calls it “disgusting to manipulate someone’s sexuality . . . especially when they’re still emerging into adulthood”.
The impact
Of course, if the accusations were true, then those acts would be horrifying and disgusting. Charles was already starting to lose subscribers on YouTube. When James Charles made a video in response to Westbrooke’s he apologized for everything he had “put her through” over the past few weeks and then acknowledged he had learned some hard lessons about interacting with men he was interested in.
Then his subscribers started leaving his channel by the millions, which wasn’t helped when one man came forward corroborating what Tati Westbrook said – saying Charles had tried to manipulate him. Jeffree Star also said that Westbrook’s story checked out. Meanwhile Westbrook saw a nearly four million subscriber increase.
How is Shane Dawson involved?
Shane Dawson has somehow become part of the Tati Westbrook & James Charles drama. Dawson is currently known for his insane success both as a beauty blogger and as a documentary maker for YouTube. His documentaries about various YouTube stars, which usually come in multiple parts, are some of the longer form content on the site, but it does extraordinarily well.
Recently Dawson tweeted that he was done with the beauty industry and admitted he knew Westbrook was going to make the callout video about James Charles. (This tweet has since been deleted.) Now, other YouTubers have actually accused Dawson and his best friend Jeffree Star for orchestrating Westbrook’s video.
What’s happening now
Right now, the internet is expecting Tati Westbrook to make a new video where she defends James Charles and explains what happened a year ago. Westbrook has been on a sabbatical from social media, but recently tweeted lyrics to the song ‘Dear Happy’ by Gabrielle Aplin. The tweet said, “I started thinking, I should open my mouth and, let the words out, yeah, let the words out, yeah”.
Others think there might be a video coming about Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson helping to orchestrate the whole debacle from last year.
So, nothing has happened yet, but her fans are on pins and needles wondering if the crazy is about to break out again. Some are hoping she’s matured past callout videos, and YouTube drama, while others are more than ready to pop some popcorn.
