All these influencer scandals are wild and all but to me, nothing will ever be as wild as the iconique YouTuber bust-ups, especially the James Charles and Tati Westbrook drama.
The legends of Pop Crave have reminded us that this week marks the four year anniversary of that time Westbrook uploaded a 43-minute-long YouTube video titled “BYE SISTER…” directed at James Charles.
The feud was so iconic, that the vid copped more than 30 million views and James Charles broke the unfortunate record for the most subscribers lost in a day.
4 years ago today, Tati Westbrook uploaded a 43-minute-long YouTube video titled “BYE SISTER…” directed at James Charles.
The video, which had more than 30 million views, resulted in Charles holding the record for the most YouTube subscribers lost in a day. pic.twitter.com/YXDDibdi03
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) May 10, 2023
To celebrate this blessed event, we thought we’d rehash everything that went down on that fateful day in 2019 and the aftermath that ensued.
What happened with the James Charles and Tati Westbrook drama?
Let’s recap for those who haven’t been sipping the tea from the beginning: Tati Westbrook, one of the OG beauty YouTubers, was the then-19-year-old’s first mentor in the business and basically helped build his career.
In fact, James would always credit Tati as the reason he first picked up a makeup brush and later summoned Tati’s help via social media DMs to help him start out in the biz.
Cracks began to appear in the pair’s friendship in April 2019, when Charles took to his Instagram Stories during Coachella to promote a particular line of vitamins that are a direct competitor to one Tati’s supplement companies (oh yeah, Tati is a supplement mogul!).
This upset Tati greatly, and she took to social media saying that she felt “lost” and “betrayed” thanks to a friend who had “used” her, and though she didn’t mention him by name in her post, people quickly put two and two together.
To remedy the sitch, James Charles later took to his Instagram again, offering a public apology to Tati, saying: “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.”
Tati remained fairly quiet in the following weeks, before initiating World War 3 by dropping a lengthy video entitled ‘BYE SISTER‘, and oh boy, it’s a wild fucking ride. Where do we even begin?
In summary, she said that she and her husband have always supported Charles, lining up opportunities for him and helping him with brand deals, but that he has disrespected them in return, and has not been gracious or thoughtful to anyone in the wider beauty industry.
“How entitled do you have to be to think that you have it rough?” she says in the vid.
“You are a 19-year-old millionaire. You do not get to wake up and stress out about how unfair your job is. That is so ridiculous to me.”
She also said that she cut ties with James because she is tired of making justifications for his behaviour, including recent, controversial comments he made about wanting to have sex with a straight waiter at a restaurant, and not caring about said waiter’s own orientation.
The video has since been deleted but it’s been saved and reuploaded by this absolute legend:
Charles later released an apology video commenting on his actions, including the Coachella post and the alleged incident involving the straight waiter.
He said that he is “disappointed” in himself for hurting his friend’s feelings.
It still exists on his YouTube, have a watch below:
Despite his apology, the damage was already done and his star began to fall hard from there.
How many subscribers did James Charles lose?
According to the YouTube statistics tracking site Social Blade, James’ subscriber count dropped from 16.5 million to 16.0 million to 15.7 million in the hours after Tati’s video and that number continued to drop, making him the YouTuber who lost the most subscribers in one day.
In the meantime, Tati’s subscriber count grew exponentially.
James Charles feuds with other celebrities
Several other prominent celebs and YouTubers supported Tati and shared their own claims about James Charles.
Let’s start with the shadiest of them all: Fellow beauty YouTuber Jeffree Star.
He revealed that he’d taken Tati’s side by firing off the following tweets as her subscriber count grew while Charles’ dropped.
“HUGE congratulations to the makeup queen @GlamLifeGuru on hitting 6 MILLION subscribers on YouTube today!!! ???????? You are one of a kind,” he tweeted.
“OOPS, I must have been high yesterday.. Sorry, @GlamLifeGuru! ???????? HUGE CONGRATULATIONS on hitting 8 MILLION subscribers!!!!”
He then specifically called out his disgraced colleague, confirming that everything Tati said was legit and that he is a “danger to society.”
“There is a reason that Nathan banned James Charles from ever coming over to our home again,” he wrote. “There’s a reason why I haven’t seen him since @GlamLifeGuru‘s birthday in February. He is a danger to society. Everything Tati said is 100% true.”
Heavy stuff, huh? It gets weirder.
Swedish singer Zara Larsson then weighed in, claiming that James once slid into her STRAIGHT boyfriend’s DMs.
“I’m cackling cause he hit up my boyfriend in the dms several times knowing damn well he’s straight,” she tweeted before swiftly deleting it.
A fan later probed Zara about why she canned the tweet and she responded, “It made me really uncomfortable cause I felt like it was unproportinally blown up and I honestly don’t wanna be a part of it. I feel like I shouldn’t have made my self involved, even if the behaviour is problematic in general.”
It made me really uncomfortable cause I felt like it was unproportiunally blown up and I honestly don’t wanna be a part of it. I feel like I shouldn’t have made my self involved, even if the behavior is problematic in general.
— Zara Larsson (@zaralarsson) May 12, 2019
Singer Katy Perry also weighed in on the shade by liking a tweet that attacked the beauty blogger.
A fan shared a video of her dancing to Charles’ sappy apology video as a means of taking the piss.
Me dancing to James Charles apology pic.twitter.com/3PF5Q0Zehb
— EMMY (@emmymhartman) May 11, 2019
Big shocker: Shade king Elijah Daniel also put his two cents in by sharing a video of Charles’ follower count dramatically dropping.
“I just started this new Netflix show I’m only on episode 1 please don’t spoil it for me,” he wrote, before following it up with a few more sassy comments.
i just started this new Netflix show im only on episode 1 please don’t spoil it for me pic.twitter.com/5WXkiAlGUU
— elijah daniel (@elijahdaniel) May 11, 2019
anyway congrats to james charles for hitting 15M subscribers this is such a huge milestone and step towards influencer representation in the media
— elijah daniel (@elijahdaniel) May 11, 2019
use code “james” for 600,000 subscribers off 🙂
— elijah daniel (@elijahdaniel) May 11, 2019
thought I’d try out a lil dancing on tiktok and found the perfect soundtrack 🙈 it’s my first time plz be nice 🙂 pic.twitter.com/VXYsRaiUMk
— elijah daniel (@elijahdaniel) May 11, 2019
And here are a few other savage tweets by various other members of the ~internet~ celeb world.
imagine being a youtuber what a MESS
— tyler oakley 👹 (@tyleroakley) May 10, 2019
omg it’s so embarrassing being a YouTuber in the year 2019 cause none of y’all can fuckin act right 💀
— Jenn McAllister (@jennmcallister) May 10, 2019
THIS. I’ll say MOST og YouTubers deserve every ounce of respect & success for paving the way. There was no fame/clout chasing. Pure determination, passion, drive & talent for entertaining. Mostly this new crop can’t relate, but this platform in 2019 rewards clownery + foolishness https://t.co/48j3AHxK88
— Daniel Preda (@MisterPreda) May 11, 2019
You couldn’t make money on YouTube & there were no famous youtubers back when some of us started. It literally was because we had a passion to teach, make people laugh or entertain in a way that didn’t hurt, disrespect or insult anyone. It’s sad what YouTube has become now😔
— Kandee Johnson (@kandeejohnson) May 11, 2019
Did you just hate-buy vitamins? 2019 is wild.
— Hank Green (@hankgreen) May 11, 2019
Hello, and welcome to Crash Course: Tea
— Hank Green (@hankgreen) May 11, 2019
What happened with James Charles and Tati Westbrook?
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the last time James Charles was accused of predatory behaviour and he has continually been called out for it over the years (rightfully so). He was even demonetised by YouTube.
As for Tati, she is still creating beauty content and running her lush brands.
More than two years after the whole thing went down, E! aired a True Hollywood Story special about the event if you want more intel:
