James Charles Loses Over 2 Million YouTube Subscribers Amid Tati Westbrook Feud

YouTube stars Tati Westbrook and James Charles have amassed a large fan following through social media for their make-up tutorials and beauty product reviews. However, this past weekend, Westbrook slammed the 19-year-old Charles in a 43-minute video, outlining how he not only used their friendship countless times to get to where he is, but also manipulated people’s sexuality for his own gain — a revelation that came with a cost for Charles.

The admission from Westbrook has led Charles to lose 2.4 million followers since Friday’s release, according to Social Blade. The YouTube personality and makeup artist lost a whopping 1.2 million followers alone on Saturday, dropping his subscriber count from 16.5 million last Monday to 14.1 million on Sunday afternoon.

Charles’ subscriber fallout comes straight from Westbrook’s eloquent and professional response stemming from her own maturity and challenges within the influencer industry.

On Friday, Westbrook, also known as the “Glam Life Guru,” severed ties with the beauty protégé in a video that has now received more than 26 million views since its release and collected more than 2.4 million likes. The confession from Westbrook came after the two had a recent falling out earlier this spring after James promoted the hair and sleep vitamin, Sugar Bear Hair — a direct rival to her own hair supplement brand, Halo Beauty. While the actions from her former friend left Westbrook feeling “betrayed,” she details in her video how it was the final straw to a string of punches from Charles.

The 37-year-old Westbrook shares how she took on a “parental” role with Charles after the two met three years ago. But while they had some good times, the Washington native said she was cutting all ties after he “sold” her out and “threw away” their friendship, which left her “embarrassed” and “hurt.”

“You kept saying you can’t be bought, but you just were,” Westbrook said in the video. “You lied to me, made up a story, you knew this would be embarrassing for me. No our relationship is not transactional. I have never asked you for anything in return.”

Westbrook went on to reveal how Charles also uses his “fame, power and money to play with people’s emotions” per their last conversation, where the teenage star considered himself the “victim” of a bad relationship. However, Westbrook dove in to his predatory actions, calling him out for his manipulative behavior over young males.

“You tried to trick a straight man into thinking he’s gay, yet again – and somehow you’re the victim? You know it’s really disgusting to manipulate someone’s sexuality, especially when they are still emerging into adulthood and don’t have everything figured out,” she said. “You’re threatening to ruin them and embarrass them, and you’re doing that to have them behave sexually in your favor even if they’re straight?”

Westbrook went on to scold James, adding how “dare” he laugh about it or “make meme after meme and make it a joke.”

“That behavior is not okay if you’re a woman a man, gay, straight, bi, whatever sexual orientation you are, that is your personal call and it is not someone else’s to take, not someone else’s to play with,” she continued. “This behavior is not normal and not okay. This is s— that will follow them for the rest of their lives and you need someone to tell you to stop it, and that’s exactly what I did in your kitchen.”

After sharing further details of Charles’ behavior and actions that caused the rift, Westbrook officially severed ties, adding how Charles always “has a way of getting what he wants,” and how there is a lot that he is doing that she does not support and that “fame, power and a fat bank account will change almost anyone.”

“How entitled do you have to be to think that you have it rough? You are a 19-year-old millionaire. You do not get to wake up and stress out about how unfair your job is. That is so ridiculous to me,” she said at one point. “Get off your high horse and have some respect. You don’t have any for the people who are in this industry and that’s the sad fact.”

Driving her points home in the video, Westbrook added: “I don’t think there’s any getting through to you and I don’t want to be friends with you. I don’t want to be associated with you, and I need to say that very publicly so that chapter can be closed.”

Charles responded seven hours after Westbrook’s video on Saturday morning, showing up bare-faced and expressing his sorrow to “two important people” in his life — Westbrook and her husband, James.

“To Tati and James Westbrook, I’m sorry for everything that is going on and everything I put you through in the last few weeks,” he said. “I’m disappointed in myself that I ruined our relationship.”

“What sucks the most is that there is nothing I can say or do to ever earn that friendship or trust back, but I don’t blame them for it,” he continued. “I wish I can say this is the last time I’m going to make a mistake, but it won’t be … I’m going to keep trying my best and keep learning and growing.”

“In regards to the Coachella situation … no matter what I say or do, there are always going to be people that don’t believe me and will think that I’m lying — and that’s OK,” he concluded. “At this point, the truth really does not matter, it’s the feelings that do. No matter what happened, I hurt two very important people. They’ve been really loyal to me and I betrayed that.”

Charles’ controversial response has been viewed over 25 million times as of Sunday, with over 2 million dislikes and a barrage of support for Westbrook in the comments section.

While Charles’ social count continues to drop across social media, including Twitter and Instagram, Westbrook has seen an influx in subscribers at YouTube and her own social networks. Since Friday, Westbrook has enlisted more than 3 million subscribers to her channel, and amassed thousands more on Instagram and Twitter.

Since the fallout, Hollywood celebrities are seemingly take sides in the feud, with the likes of Miley Cyrus, Kylie Jenner, Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, Tana Mongeau and Shawn Mendes.