The James Charles and Tati Westbrook fallout has unfortunately reached a new low. What started as a simple disagreement between friends about sponsored posts and brand allegiances has turned into fodder for drama YouTube channels. James Charles has drawn the line with a drama channel YouTuber who included his mom in a video about this public friendship hurdle.
I know what you're thinking: How did James Charles go from Coachella to gummy bear vitamins to a war of the beauty worlds that ends up with him defending Mama Charles? Let's ride!
This drama began with James Charles sharing a sponsored post about gummy bear vitamins.
Charles promoted Sugar Bear Hair in his Instagram stories. Sugar Bear Hair is a major competitor to Tati Westbrook's Halo Beauty supplements brand. Charles is not only friends with Westbrook but has also promoted her Halo Beauty supplements. Business-wise, this competing post was kind of unfortunate. Still, Westbrook seemed to take it way more personally.
Westbrook shared a tearful yet vague story from her beauty studio shortly after.
Westbrook revealed that she's having a "rough one" and insinuated that some or one of her relationships in the beauty community has been built off of false love. She also admitted to feeling used.
"Everybody says what they need to say and uses who they need to use, and I have had about enough," she shared with her followers. "It's not right." She went on to describe how artificial the "Hollywood" scene can be. Fans couldn't help but wonder who she was referring to.
As it usually goes with the internet, people quickly deduced that she was referring to her (former?) friend James Charles.
Fans immediately began criticizing Charles for seemingly fumbling his friendship and business relationship with Westbrook.
Without much evidence yet, people began taking their sides. Some even unfollowed Charles to make a statement against him.
"I honestly know minus one subscriber won’t hurt @jamescharles but what he did to Tati is pretty terrible," one person wrote. "Friends support each other, especially friends like her that have supported you from the start. Her feelings are totally valid."
Charles swiftly issued an apology to Westbrook via social media.
"I want to publicly apologize to my close friend Tati," he wrote. "She has been like a mother to me since my first days in this industry and has given me more love, support, resources, and advice than I could ever ask for. This weekend I did an Instagram Story for Sleep Vitamins that I've been taking, because the brand helped me with security when the crowd around me at Coachella became unsafe."
"I did not accept any money for the post. As most of you know, Tati has a vitamin brand which I take on a daily basis, but I did not think about the competition, which was a major oversight. I've supported Tati both online and off like she has done for me and am devastated that I hurt someone that I truly love and have endless respect for."
Even fellow influencer Gabriel Zamora added his two cents to the mix.
Zamora blatantly called out Westbrook for being so upset about Charles promoting the Sugar Bear Hair gummies. Fans immediately began to call him out for yet again finding a place for himself in the middle of drama.
"I love you Gabriel Zamora but this ain’t it," one fan wrote. "You can’t tell someone how to feel about their brands and their relationships with people or how they should perceive things. James was wrong and he knows it. He did Tati dirty and that’s on PERIODT."
Tati Westbrook has yet to publicly respond to Charles' apology or any other person who has spoken on the topic.
Charles also suggested that Westbrook isn't speaking to him privately either. "Until Tati feels comfortable and ready to talk to me in private, I don't feel comfortable commenting about her publicly," read a direct message published by YouTube drama channel TeaSpill.
It seemed like this would be the end of the drama for a while. That was until another YouTube channel did something concerning the fallout that thoroughly pissed Charles off.
Charles called out the TeaSpill YouTube channel for inserting his mother and her social media habits into the beef coverage.
The YouTuber created a video that highlighted Instagram comments liked by Charles' mom. Charles didn't take kindly to the video at all, and he also explained what led to his mom liking the comments in the first place.
"Making a video about my MOTHER liking Instagram comments? Literally, what is wrong with you?" Charles asked the YouTuber. "… So I have no control over her and what she does. Any mother is going to defend her SON and be sad when they're receiving death threats. That's not 'news' or 'scandal' worth. Shame on you for bringing my family into this when you literally have no idea what even happened."
Williams seemed to shift the blame back to Charles' mother.
"So your mom SHADES someone & that’s okay? But if I raise awareness to it [then] I’m discraceful [sic]," Williams wrote on Twitter. "Remember when you shaded Reuben for coming to a Morphe store and he got death threats?" Williams asked Charles. "After this message he blocked me. Grow up."
The YouTuber also explained to Charles in private messages that he was simply covering a public action made by his mother.
Still, Charles would hear none of it. He completely drew the line at his mom being made a target by the beauty community.
"It doesn't matter what YOU say in the video," he wrote back to Williams. "You know the community that follows you and the comments they leave are extremely toxic and disgusting and it is so disgraceful for you to bring someone's family into drama."
All in all, this health supplement drama has gone way too far.
What began as a falling out between two beauty influencers has turned into something major. Per Charles, he and Westbrook are still not speaking, and we can only assume that the social media stuff has only made that pending conversation even more difficult to have. Everyone needs to take a chill pill, a Halo Beauty supplement, or whatever healthy (and legal!) thing they can find.
Let's hope that everyone gets back on track with their friendships as soon as they can.
