Beauty bloggers James Charles and Tati Westbrook have reconciled, *sort of*

Here’s the latest lowdown in this never-ending saga

BeautyCrew Beauty Editor / May 21 2019

In what can only be described as the most unusual and never-ending saga in the YouTube beauty community, James Charles and Tati Westbrook’s feud seems to have fizzled out, *sort of*.

If you’re late to the game and have absolutely no idea what we’re talking about, here is the 411.

Beauty guru Tati Westbrook released a 40-minute long video to her YouTube channel entitled Bye Sister (this has since been deleted), accusing fellow Youtuber and personal friend James Charles of orchestrating an endorsement deal with beauty supplement company SugarBearHair; a competitor of Tati’s own beauty supplement line, Halo Beauty. The video also detailed James’ untoward behaviour; listing shady interactions with other influencers and the sexual harassment of young men as reasoning for deciding to cut James out of her life.

James responded in kind – initially with an apology video, however as the negative attention continued to affect his social media career (the YouTube star lost over three million followers in less than a week), James filmed a 41-minute-long rebuttal titled No More Lies, stating that Tati had only told half of the story and he had the receipts to prove it. And boy did he.

James had numerous text chains proving that not only was his endorsement with SugarBearHair agreed upon on the spot but that he had given Tati the heads up to let her know why he was promoting a competitor’s products. Although James admitted he had been shady towards other influencers online, he refuted the claim that he had ever sexually harassed a straight man at Tati’s birthday party in Seattle, saying, “I am a 19-year-old virgin … I really don’t get a lot of action … I have never, and would never, and will never use my fame, money, or power to manipulate or get any sexual actions from a guy. That is disgusting.”

He followed the video with a number of tweets explaining that his only intention was to clear his name and that he didn’t want to add further fuel to the fire.

Tati took to Twitter to reveal she was taking a ‘digital break’, but not before stating that James’ video was “littered with so many half-truths and lies”.

Never one to be left out of drama in the YouTube beauty community, Jeffree Starr left his two cents via a (not so) cryptic tweet, which he has since deleted, saying: “Before you believe anything that was said today, remember there are always two sides to every story”.

Now that you’re all caught up…

Since uploading his video debunking the allegations made towards him, James’ YouTube subscriber count has started to increase again – in the past two days he has gained back over 1.4 million followers. Not to mention that the video in question has created over $350,000 and counting in ad revenue. *Cha-ching*.

Tati on the other hand has not been so lucky; while initially gaining over five million followers from the negative backlash towards James, she has now lost over 300,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel and we suspect this number will continue to climb.

Perhaps the most surprising thing to come out of all of this is a public apology Jeffree Starr issued to James on his YouTube channel where the beauty mogul and influencer admitted that all the drama was “a huge wake-up call to reel me in”, saying he was done with the “tea, and the drama”.

This prompted Tati to issue a public apology to everyone who had been dragged into the saga, stating that she and James had decided to settle their beef for their community, viewers and their own mental health:

These feelings were echoed by James who thanked his fellow influencers for their apologies via Twitter:

Fingers crossed they mean it this time because honestly, we’re starting to get YouTube drama burnout.

Want the full low-down of this debacle? Read all the details of how the Internet *almost* cancelled James Charles.

What has shocked you most about this beauty vlogger feud? Let us know in the comments below.

Briar Clark got her start in the media industry in 2017, as an intern for Marie Claire and InStyle. Since then, her keen interest in fashion and beauty has landed her gigs as a Digital Content Producer and Beauty Editor with titles like Girlfriend, Refinery29, BEAUTYcrew and beautyheaven. She loves the way seemingly innocuous topics like skin care and style have the ability to put a smile on people’s faces or make them think about themselves a little differently. A big believer in self love and experimentation, Briar has made a point of becoming the Australian beauty industry’s unofficial guinea pig for unusual treatments and daring hair trends. When she’s not testing out the latest beauty launches, Briar is big on broadening her horizons, mostly in the form of food but she’s also partial to travelling to new destinations both near and far (and of course, allocating an extra bag to bring their best beauty offerings home with her).