For those of you who don't follow YouTube drama, I'm going to give you "James Charles: SparkNotes version."
YouTuber James Charles has long been accused of inappropriate behavior online. One of his biggest controversies was in 2019, when YouTubers Tati and Jeffree Star accused him of sexting minors.
That turned out to be false, as James proved with his receipts. However, more underaged people came forward this year, accusing James of sexual misconduct and inappropriate communication:
TOTALLY UNEXPECTED: James Charles exposed for allegedly having inappropriate interaction w/minor. James’s alleged victim said they were 16 in comments, according to sources. In one Snap, James allegedly tells victim “pick me up for some road head.” TikTok has since been deleted.
Shortly after, James' channel was temporarily demonetized, he was dropped by Morphe, and eventually, he took a break from being online.
Well on Friday, James returned to YouTube with a new video, "An Open Conversation," where he addressed the most recent allegations that he sexts/inappropriately communicates with minors and fans.
However, one thing that really disturbed people is the way in which he addressed these allegations — in a "Getting Ready With"–type video format!
"For today's video, I really want to 'Get Ready Together' for a few different reasons," James said. "One, being I miss doing makeup so, so much, and I really wanna do a pretty look for today's video."
So then James went on to address the allegations, while doing his makeup.
"At the end of the day, as the adult and the person with the platform, it was 1,000% my responsibility to be doing my due diligence and checking into the people that I was speaking to, and I failed to do that," he said.
"I am so, so sorry for disappointing you guys and letting you down once again," Charles continued. "As scary as it is to think about, I've also come to terms with the fact that this isn't just something that I can move on from. I am aware that, you know, no matter what I say in this video or 10 videos down the line, or a year's worth of videos down the line, these stories and accusations are going to follow me for the rest of my life and the rest of my career, and that sucks so much."
Although he did apologize for not doing his "due diligence," James also said that a lot of the accusations in the now-viral thread are fake or baseless. "There were countless videos that were completely fake. I'm talking about conversations that fully never happened, that were edited from beginning to end."
Still, the backlash to the video was pretty heavy on Twitter, with people criticizing the format, the approach, and the tone of the video:
not james charles talking about his inappropriate behaviour w/ minors while doing a makeup look 😭😭😭
i know james charles did not just upload a video of him talking about his SA allegations while doing his makeup
Who the fuck wants makeup tips from a pedophile like James Charles
How do you film a video of “holding yourself accountable” whilst doing makeup??? Has James Charles lost all sense and self awareness????
James ended his video, telling people that he will continue to grow. You can watch the full thing here:
