November 15 — that's yesterday, children — was Jeffree Star's birthday.
Though if you weren't paying attention, you might not have realized. Because none of Star's supposed "best friends" seem to have wished him a happy birthday.
In fact, many people have hypothesized that the two BFF bedrocks of Team Jeffree — Manny Gutierrez and Laura Lee — are no longer speaking to Star, widely regarded as beauty YouTube's most controversial personality. In fact, it seems like Jeffree is only still friends with ONE of his YouTube besties.
Let's sip some tea and examine the evidence.
In 2016, Manny celebrated Star's birthday by shouting his love for his BFF Jeffree (BFFree?) from the damn rooftops.
"So since @JeffreeStar is in New York and it's past midnight there…. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE!!!!!!!!!" he wrote.
But on Jeffree's birthday in 2017? THIS is what Manny tweeted, instead of a public happy birthday to his supposed close friend.
"Stay away from negative people… they have a problem for every solution."
My subtweet sense is tingling!
Laura Lee, Jeffree's other "best friend," also skipped wishing Star a happy birthday — instead tweeting a photo of her and Manny heading off on an Urban Decay press trip.
Laura has also been tweeting out cryptic "let haters go" quotes since the start of November — quotes that many fans believe are pointed at Jeffree Star.
"Walk away from anything that gives you bad vibes. There is no need to explain or make sense of it. It's your life. Do what makes you happy."
Laura has also been subtweeting "shady" people who are "fake friends," which Manny, Nikita Dragun, Jaclyn Hill AND Gabriel Zamora have all been favoriting, replying to, and retweeting.
SEEMS LIKE SOMETHING MAY BE UP.
The only person who went out of their way to wish Star a happy birthday? Tati Westbrook, aka GlamLifeGuru.
"@JeffreeStar you are truly one of a kind. I know we're an opposites attract friendship… but I love that. You make things more interesting & I bring the calm. Have an Amazing Birthday," she wrote.
Tati and Jeffree did a couple of videos together back in June, and according to one another's Snapchats and IG Stories, continue to hang out socially. Tati was roundly dragged by her fans for working with Star, who they viewed as a bully — and was quite at odds with Tati's "positivity first" persona.
Still, it's clear that Tati has decided to stick with Star despite the controversy.
Instead of spending every minute with Jeffree, Manny has been hanging out with Laura and Jaclyn Hill, who Star recently implied was one of the "fake pieces of shit" in the beauty community.
Just before Halloween, Star tweeted:
"Just did a social media PURGE and unfollowed / blocked all the fake pieces of shit in the beauty community," he wrote. "Surround yourself with good energy at all times, life isn’t worth wasting time on people who pretend to like you… It feels so good to mentally start a new chapter and remember what your goals are, what’s important… get back to your center."
The people he appeared to have unfollowed at that point included former friends Jaclyn Hill, Nikita Dragun, and Gabriel Zamora.
And Laura has been posting photos with Karen Sarahi Gonzalez (aka iluvsarahii), Gabriel Zamora, Nikita Dragun, and Manny. There's no Jeffree to be found.
This picture was taken at the Laura Lee Los Angeles launch dinner. According to Snapchat, Jeffree was there — but there are no Instagrams of them hanging out, being best friends in public.
That's pretty unusual for ALL parties involved.
In fact, the last time that Jeffree, Manny, and Laura were all together for the 'gram was back in August when they went on a trip to Bora Bora.
Jeffree, Manny, and Laura used to be publicly together ALL the time — they filmed videos together, took selfies for Instagram together, collaborated together, and appeared in ad campaigns for one another's projects.
These three were friends, but that friendship was also really good for ALL of their professional brands. Suddenly, they're no longer shooting together, they're not hanging out, they're not being cute on social media anymore — so it's easy to see why fans think that *something* is going on.
When Laura's palette — and her new makeup brand — came out, Jeffree reviewed it on his channel. That was on September 24.
He also attended the launch dinner for her brand — not that you'd know it from looking at his Instagram. Compared to other brand parties and events Star has attended recently, there are no brands or influencers tagged — nobody he wants to shout out (besides the person who did his hair), nobody (like Laura) he wants to congratulate on their success, no promotional hashtags deployed.
If I didn't know what I was looking for because I'm a creep, I'd have no idea that Star was at Laura's launch event. For an influencer of Jeffree's stature, this is REALLY unusual.
The last time Star and Manny tweeted one another was on Halloween — October 31.
Jeffree didn't even publicly congratulate Manny for making it on to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list — which, again, seems REALLY suspicious.
But so far, this has all been conjecture. Nobody — not Jeffree, not Manny, and not Laura — have said ANYTHING concrete about the BFF breakup.
The only thing besides subtweets and possibly-deleted or re-edited Instagrams is this statement, provided to Saunders Kennedy in a new video. Kennedy claims he reached out to Jeffree about the cancelled friendship rumors, and Star has said:
"I do not have a statement regarding fake news. This purely fake news — me and Manny are perfectly great together. We are great friends, he can hang out with whoever he wants to hang out with. I do not own Manny, and he is free to do what he wants. That's his friendship, not mine."
*sips an endless amount of beauty tea*
I'll keep you posted on any associated ~drama~ with the Manny-Jeffree-Laura situation as it develops.
UPDATE: Manny posted this tweet after this story was published.
In case that goes away, the tweet reads: "And for the record, laura and I both texted Jeffree happy birthday yesterday."
TO BE CONTINUED…
