If you don't find joy in keeping up with YouTube gossip … well, sorry. But the drama that's been going on between James Charles and Tati Westbrook is what a whole, whole lot of people are talking about, and so here we are. So, OK, James and Tati are both beauty gurus on YouTube, right? Tati has been in the game for years, and James has been around for a fraction of that time, but he's had unbelievable success. And it turns out that he has Tati to thank for that. The drama started when James shared an ad for SugarBearHair vitamins after he claimed they helped him out with security at Coachella, and Tati reacted very negatively to that. She was upset because she has her own line of vitamins, Halo Beauty, and since she and James have been so close for so long, for him to promote her main competitor was a bit of a betrayal. She literally cried about the situation in her Instagram story, and a lot of people thought she was being dramatic. Not so much. Yesterday, she released a 43-minute video titled “BYE SISTER …” in which she pretty much destroyed him, but in a nice way. In the video, she revealed that she mentored James at the very beginning of his career, and that she and her husband helped him get million-dollar deals when no one was taking him seriously. She considered him to be family, and they were so close that she had him do her makeup at her wedding. As time went on, certain things about him began to bother her, and she realized that his ego was getting out of control. She also had a big problem with the way he treats potential romantic partners. That's a whole different story, but just to get a taste of it, Tati recalled how he went out to dinner with her and her family and friends for her birthday, and he said very explicit things about what he wanted to do to their waiter. When she told him he was straight, James said “It doesn't matter, I'm a celebrity.” Tati said that she tried to help James time and time again and steer him in the right direction, but he would never listen, and when he promoted a rival company, that was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back. And after learning just how much she and her husband helped him, it's definitely understandable that she no longer wants to be involved with him. The thing is that Tati is pretty revered in the beauty community, and she's very trustworthy, so it was easy to believe everything that she said. And James started hemorrhaging subscribers — as of now, he's lost well over a million. So what else was there for him to do but an apology video? You can watch the full video at the end of this post, but the gist of it is that he's really, really sorry. After losing so many subscribers, why wouldn't he be? He says that most of his career so far “has been about me making mistakes and trying to learn and grow from them, and I haven't always done the best job with that.” He's sad that he ruined a relationship that was so important to him, “and throughout all of this what sucks the most is that there's nothing I can say or do to ever earn that friendship or trust back.” Oh, and about all that creepy, manipulative stuff about getting with guys? He essentially says that he just wishes he never talked about it at all on social media, and that Tati did warn him he'd get into trouble over boys on day. So he's not sorry for his behavior, only sorry that he's getting called out for it. He finishes the video by admitting that “A lot of times when I've tried to address things in the past I've acted out of impulse and I've gone off and tried to pull receipts or facts or screenshots and played the victim, and I'm not doing that today.” It's just not a great apology video. It's not as bad as Laura Lee's apology from last year , but it's still not good. After everything we've seen from him, it's hard to believe he's sincere here, and if you take one look at the comments on the video, it's clear that everyone else agrees. Is this the end of James Charles? Probably not. But still, it's certainly a bad look. Check out his full apology here:
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James Charles Responds to Tati Westbrook: I’m Sister Sorry!
