American YouTube star James Charles has called the last week the “darkest time in my life.”
This is after fellow YouTube star Tati Westbrook accused him of manipulating someone’s sexuality and promoting a rival product to hers. James Charles, who is 19, has since lost millions of subscribers and received lots of hate on social media, BBC reported.
In a new 41-minute video posted on Saturday (18.05.19) James Charles, visibly upset and wearing no make-up says: “The past week on the internet has been the darkest we’ve all ever seen and it’s also been the darkest time I’ve had to go through in my life and my thoughts got to a really scary place.”
He doesn’t deny signing a contract with Tati Westbrook’s competitor, saying he did it in a moment of stress as they had better passes, access and security at Coachella.
Upon finding out Tati publicly said she was cutting all ties with him. He says he tried to contact her but didn’t hear anything back and put out this apology.
In the new video titled No More Lies, James Charles goes on to heavily deny the damning accusations of “tricking a straight man to think he’s gay”. “I would never, have never and will never use my fame, money or power to manipulate or get any sexual actions from a guy,” said James Charles.
This stems from his exchanges with a waiter who James Charles says told him he was bisexual, then said he was fully gay and then reverted to saying he was bisexual again.
James Charles who recently attended the 2019 MET Gala, ended his video on a positive note, explaining that he’s planning to spend time with family to celebrate his birthday. He also added that he’ll be taking a break from YouTube and will be working on his mental health.
Previously on Thursday (16.05.19), Tati posted a second video lasting 18 minutes asking for the “hate to stop”.
In Tati Westbrook’s video on Thursday she weeps and tells viewers she didn’t expect the level of hate that James Charles received after she accused him of being disloyal and sexually harassing straight men.
She said: “I do really want the hate to stop. I want the picking sides and abusive memes and the language and all of that, I really hope on both sides it can stop. This was really a wake-up call and me trying to reach someone who I found completely unreachable and I’d been trying to deliver the same message so many times.”
Tati Westbrook has also responded saying she had seen the last post from him. “I stand by my videos,” she added, “I do not twist my words into what they are not, hear the message.”
Although both of them have been conspicuously missing from Instagram, they have both amassed enormous social media followings through make-up tutorials and beauty product reviews.
