It’s been a bittersweet week for Tati Westbrook. Within days of saying goodbye to her friendship with James Charles, the social media star’s YouTube subscribers have doubled in size.
Tati Westbrook, 37, has had a whirlwind five days. Less than a week after cutting off her 19-year-old friend and mentee, James Charles, the YouTube star has seen her subscribers more than double in size. As of May 15, the makeup vlogger has just over 10 million followers – that’s a more than 100 percent increase, given that she had 5.9 million subscribers on May 10 when she slammed him for betraying her. In contrast, the one-time darling of the influencer world has hemorrhaged fans at a dizzying rate. So far, he has lost a massive 3 million YouTube subscribers since Tati put their feud on blast, going from north of 16 million to 13.4 million.
It’s a stunning turn of events given that on May 6, James was rubbing shoulders with the great and the good of the showbiz world at the Met Gala in New York. Not only has an army of people jumped on the #canceljamescharles bandwagon that has been trending on Twitter, he has also lost celebrity fans and Instagram followers like beauty mogul Kylie Jenner, 21, and singer Katy Perry, 34.
The drama all began when Tati posted her YouTube video called “Bye Sister…” during which she laid out her relationship with James in full. The beauty influencer accused the teen of betraying their friendship, saying that she was particularly hurt by his decision to promote SugarBearHair gummy supplements while he was at the Coachella music festival. Meanwhile, she claims that he didn’t support her rival Halo Beauty supplements even though she has mentored him throughout his career.
“It wasn’t just about vitamins or Halo, it was just about being lied to and feeling disrespected,” she told her followers. “And you know, James Charles had nine days after Coachella to talk to me. He knows where I live, it’s not far from him. He could’ve come face-to-face and chatted with me, because he knew this would hurt me.”
Tati also accused James – who is openly gay – of trying to pursue straight men. “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 said.
Hours later, James made a tearful apology in his own YouTube video telling his viewers that he is “so disappointed” in himself.