After weeks of nail-biting drama and tearful Instagram stories, YouTube star Tati Westbrook has released a 43-minute video in which she calls out her former collaborator, make-up artist James Charles, and seemingly brings an end to their friendship.
[jwplayer 0kaAnltX]
Charles and Westbrook are two of YouTube’s most prominent beauty personalities – she commands more than six million subscribers on her channel, while he has more than sixteen, and they frequently appear in each-others videos.
The two are (or were) more than just colleagues – James Charles credits Tati Westbrook as the reason he got into makeup in the first place, and she even flew him out to do makeup for her wedding in 2017. In other words, this rift is a big f’kn deal.
Where did it all start? Cracks began to appear in the pair’s friendship back in April, when Charles took to his Instagram stories during Coachella to promote a particular line of vitamins that are a direct competitor to one of his friend’s supplement companies.
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.
A contrite James Charles later took to his Instagram stories 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 Westbrook remained fairly quiet in the following weeks, but today, after being questioned about her role in all this drama, she decided to air all her grievances in a lengthy video entitled ‘BYE SISTER‘, and oh boy, it’s a wild fucking ride. Where do we even begin?
In summary, she says 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 at one point. “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.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoVZg4KjRxU
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=9ws6nxMk6I0
The 19-year-old has since released a video apologising again to Tati Westbrook and her husband, and commenting on his recent 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.
Meanwhile, Jeffree Star, a man who loves drama and can smell it a mile away, posted a Tweet earlier today in which he congratulated the “one of a kind” Tati Westbrook on her six million followers, so I assume we know whose side he is on in all this.
https://twitter.com/JeffreeStar/status/1126988473813098501
