Where have ya been, James Charles? After Tati Westbrook, 37, exposed her former friend’s outrageous behavior, the 19-year-old YouTube has practically vanished (along with 3 million of his subscribers.) While James has made a name for himself with his face, he hasn’t shown it in public – until now. James, who was touring Australia to open a pop-up store on the Gold Coast this week, according to the Daily Mail, was spotted “sneaking into” the Brisbane airport on May 14. James, who went makeup free, was described as looking “solemn” as Virgin Australia cabin crew and security escorted him through the terminal. Click HERE to see the pictures.
Tati, in her 43-minute video entitled “BYE SISTER,” tore into James on May 10, accusing him of betraying her friendship, of using her to further his career, and of having a history of trying to “manipulate” straight men. “There’s so much going on with James Charles right now that I do not support. I do not agree with,” Tati said in the vid. “It’s really disgusting to manipulate someone’s sexuality, especially when they are still emerging into adulthood, and don’t quite have everything figured out,” she alleged.
James responded with an eight-minute video, in which he tearfully apologized for his actions. “To Tati and James Westbrook, I’m sorry for everything that is going on, everything that I’ve put you through over the past few weeks,” he said. “I’m so disappointed in myself that I ruined my relationship that did mean the most to me.” He also addressed the “boy situation,” adding, “Coincidentally enough Tati really was one of the people to sit me down and tell me how it looked from the outside and let me know, ‘Hey, talking to these boys might get you in trouble one day.’ And she was right.”
Ever since Tati posted the video, James has lost over 3 million subscribers (while her subscriber count has nearly doubled, as she’s up to 10 million at the time of this post’s publication.) Numerous celebrities, like Kylie Jenner and Katy Perry, have unfollowed him. Jeffree Star, who’s never afraid to get a little controversial, got involved in the scandal by tweeting that James “is a danger to society” while saying everything in Tati’s video is “100% true.” Model Jay Alvarrez seemed to produce the receipts about James’s behavior by showing how the “artistic makeup god” slid into his DMs.
While more and more of his fans are turning their backs on James, his family is sticking by him. His younger brother, Ian Jeffrey, clapped back at Jeffree’s “danger to society” comments, asking, “Why does everyone act so tough on the internet?” Jeffree, not backing down, responded by saying, “Why is your brother a predator?” There is no indication that James is a predator. Eventually, both Ian and Jeffree deleted their tweets.