Tati Westbrook, an OG Beauty Youtuber is being sued by her business partner & she is suing a “drama channel” on Youtube for exposing the case. She is also countersuing her business partner, claiming he put out lies to get money from her.
Why? This is a long story. So buckle up, and maybe grab a cup of tea.
First thing first, let’s put out a disclaimer. This article in no way intends to defame any of the names involved in the story, and we are writing this to give some insights & information on the situation.
Let’s get to the story!
It all started when Tati Westbrook, an OG Beauty Youtuber with almost 10 years in the sector, uploaded a series of stories on her Instagram about not getting the same support back from the people she supports. Shortly after the stories, her whole then 5M followers started to search for the person responsible for her crying. It didn’t take too long though, and it turned out to be James Charles, the young beauty “guru” who has been getting into quite a bit of drama lately. But more on that in another article maybe.
Now keep this next info in mind while reading the rest of the story. James Charles was a good friend of Tati, especially after she helped him with his career when he was still a beginner in the game. Tati Westbrook has a vitamin brand that sells pills for hair, skin & nail benefits called Halo Beauty. When James Charles uploaded a sponsored story (on 28th of April, 2019) on his Instagram promoting Sugarbear Hair, the number one competitor of Tati, their friendship went down the hill. Tati left social media for a moment, saying she needed time to heal, and James uploaded a public apology on his Instagram specifically to Tati.
During that time, Gabriel Zamora, another Youtuber came to James’s defense, claiming that what Tati did was unreasonable & James wasn’t exclusive to her brand. He also comes for Tati, saying that if she is uncomfortable, she can come to the Internet to talk about it.
Tati’s Return to Social Media
After some quiet time on social media, Tati returned to Youtube on the 10th of May with a video titled “Bye Sister”. In a 43 minute video with no AD breaks, Tati went on a rant about James Charles & how he is a manipulator & a predator of straight young men to trick them into having relationships with him. She also mentions how he never wanted to support Sugarbear Hair & they had several conversations about this particular brand & how he drags the influencers who support them. Tati also claims that James said that he can’t promote Halo Beauty on his channel since he has a younger audience and it wouldn’t be appropriate.
Following the claims against a big Youtuber like James Charles, the whole Youtube Beauty Community took sides on who to believe. After Tati’s video, Jeffree Star, another huge Youtuber & a makeup brand owner, got himself involved in the story by tweeting his support to Tati and agreeing with her on James’s being a predator and a “disgusting” human being. Following the video and the tweets, James started losing millions of subscribers while Tati gained more.
Not long after Tati’s video, James Charles released an apology to Tati & her husband James Westbrook. In his video, he claimed he never wanted to hurt Tati, and he is deeply sorry for all the impulsive actions he had done. He also said that he regretted talking about his relationships online as much as he did. In the meantime, Jeffree Star sent out tweets saying he had receipts of James being a predator while another Beauty Youtuber Nikita Dragun came to James’s defense, but received a backlash. Jeffree also claimed he had receipts of James, and he would expose them in a video with some of his victims.
On the 17th of May, Tati posted another video explaining why she posted the first video & that she is taking a break from Youtube until she gets over what had happened. The next day James Charles posted a second video titled “No More Lies”, addressing all the allegations made against him by Tati & Jeffree Star. He put on screenshots of text messages on the screen and basically called both Tati & Jeffree liars.
James Charles “No More Lies” vlog:
At this point, nobody was sure who was right or wrong, and the beauty community was in chaos. Tati didn’t upload a new video but sent out a series of tweets saying she was taking a digital break, and she will be back soon. And on the 19th of May, Jeffree Star uploaded a video titled “Never Doing This Again”, where he basically says he won’t be involved in drama anymore without giving any of the receipts he claimed he had about James Charles.
Almost 2 weeks later, Tati came back to Youtube with a pre-filmed video on the 3rd of June with the title I’m Back. Her comment section was a mess though, people were shocked she was posting as nothing happened, but as she explained in her caption, the videos were pre-filmed. A few days later, on the 18th of June, James Charles uploaded a video titled Hi Sister, where he does a rainbow makeup look, which makes sense because he is famous for his unusual and colorful looks. And the title is a reference to Tati’s Bye Sister video. In the video, he looks happy & says he is excited for what’s to come after a long & stressful month.
A few months passed without any mention of the drama that happened and it all seemed to calm down in the beauty community. Or has it? Follow up on the second part of this story to see what happened next!