Here's the TeaA Complete Breakdown of James Charles’ Biggest Scandals

The Africa/Ebola Scandal

Fans were seriously not happy with the YouTuber back in 2017. James came under fire from fans after he took to Twitter and after expressed his fear of getting the Ebola virus during a trip to Africa.

After receiving major backlash from fans, he penned an apology online.

“I am extremely sorry,” James wrote on Twitter. “Regardless of my intentions, words have consequences. I take full responsibility and will learn and do better.”

At the time, the makeup mogul was the face of beauty brand, CoverGirl. After the scandal, they also released a statement.

“James Charles’ tweet does not represent COVERGIRL’s perspective. We agree his statements were inappropriate but appreciate that he has issued an apology. We are an inclusive brand and respect all people and cultures,” the brand said at the time.

Ariana Grande

Celebrity feuds can get ugly — especially when you have as many fans as songstress Ariana Grande. Well, in a 2018 video with Shane Dawson, James revealed that the “Thank U, Next” songstress was the “rudest celebrity” he ever met, at the time.

Their feud went down in the DMs after Ariana invited him backstage to a show. Shortly after they spoke, James realized that the singer was no longer following him, so he allegedly asked her if he did something wrong. According to James’ account of the story, she replied with, “Hey babe, I saw a lot of angry tweets from my fans and I would never want to disappoint them, so I unfollowed.”

The makeup artist said he responded and expressed his disappointment with her, but Ariana seemingly never replied. Nor did she publicly respond to the claims that James made in his video.

The Photoshop Scandal

For years, rumors have been swirling amongst fans about James’ possible overuse of photo editing apps. In March 2019, there was a whole thread on Reddit claiming that he “faked” his makeup skills by using photoshop. He never publicly addressed the comments in this tread, but the YouTuber has been super open about the fact that he uses FaceTune on his Instagram photos.

In December 2019, James came under fire, once again, after fans accused him of editing his body for a makeup ad. He shared a new campaign for his eyeshadow palettes and brush set sold at Morphe alongside some behind-the-scenes videos from the shoot to his Instagram Stories, and some fans were quick to point out that he looked very different in the final product than he did in the behind-the-scenes footage. Some fans on Twitter suggested that the social media star used an editing app to alter the image, and felt it could be promoting unrealistic body standards.

He never publicly addressed the fan backlash.

The Kinsey Scale Scandal

The beauty guru really angered the trans community when he tried to explain the Kinsey Scale in one of his videos from April 2019. While explaining the scale — which describes a person’s sexuality — to viewers, James said that he doesn’t consider himself to be “full gay.”

here have been girls in the past who I thought were really, really beautiful. There’s also been like trans guys in the past, too, who I was like really, really into for a moment in time,” he said.

Fans were quick to call out the YouTuber for his offensive statement, which seemingly implied that trans men aren’t actual men. Eventually, James took to Twitter and apologized for his remarks.

“I unintentionally implied that my trans brothers & sisters aren’t valid. This is NOT what I was trying to say. You are valid in your identity! I apologize [and] should’ve chosen my words wiser,” he wrote at the time.

Tati Westbrook

In May 2019, the beauty community was forever changed when Tati released a since-deleted 43-minute video that slammed James for allegedly manipulating straight men, spreading rumors and being a bad friend. She claimed that James went behind her back to do a social media campaign for SugarBearHair — a direct competitor of her wellness brand Halo Beauty.

She went on to explain that he never apologized and revealed that he always “gets what he wants.”

Days after Tati posted his video, James publicly responded with his own upload that included detailed receipts, which seemingly proved her allegations to be false.

He explained that he “doesn’t really feel comfortable just moving on” from the allegations, so he dove into a timeline of everything that went down and hit every major point Tati brought up.

The feud seemed to die down in June 2019 after both James and Tati asked fans to stop sending hateful comments toward each other. But where do they stand now?

In November 2019, James spilled on his relationship with Tati and revealed that the entire situation effected his mental health. Although he never actually addressed her by name, it seemed like the two have not spoken and their friendship will never be repaired as James revealed he is not “back to normal” after being “canceled” online.

Since she posted her initial videos, Tati has not addressed the feud publicly.

A year after the entire situation went down, in May 2020, admitted that he’s “finally happy again.”

Gage Gomez

For those who missed it, Gage Gomez was James’ rumored Coachella fling. After the festival, however, Gage took to YouTube to expose James for manipulating him, despite the fact that he identifies as straight.

“James saw this as an opportunity to manipulate me as a person who may or may not have been trying to figure things out about their sexuality, after the fact that I told him I was straight multiple times,” Gage explained. “Because as you all know, this person, 99.9 maybe 100 percent of the time goes after heterosexual men.”

James has since publicly addressed the manipulation allegations in a lengthy post on his Instagram Stories, insisting he would never do such a thing.

“He left out many details, and accused me of pressuring him which is a blatant LIE, which has painted a false image of me being a predator.” James wrote. “I will not stand for this or take it lightly. I would never, have never and WILL NEVER pressure a guy to do anything. Everything that happened between him and I was 100 percent consensual.”

James also said that this would be his last time addressing the allegations publicly.

The Met Gala Scandal

Compared to everything else that’s been going on with James, this scandal is relatively small. As you probably know by now, the YouTuber was invited to attend the 2019 Met Gala, which is actually pretty awesome. Once he posted about the event on Instagram, though, people were very bothered by his caption.

“My first met gala,” he wrote. “Thank you so much @youtube for inviting me and @alexanderwangny for dressing me! Being invited to such an important event like the ball is such an honor and a step forward in the right direction for influencer representation in the media and I am so excited to be a catalyst. Video coming tomorrow!”

James received major backlash from fans for using the term “influencer representation.” He addressed the situation publicly, in since-expired Instagram Stories videos.

“I wanted to say thank you for those who left positive comments on today’s Met Gala video, the reaction is definitely quite split,” James said at the time. “I knew this was going to happen though… Whenever an influencer does something ‘new’ people tend to be very up in arms about it, but I can see why. Regardless it was a such a huge honor, I met so many amazing people and nothing is going to take away my amazing time that I had.”

Jeffree Star

After Tati posted her video, Jeffree joined in on the scandal, seemingly coming to Tati’s defense and calling the 21-year-old a “danger to society.”

Once the had blown over, Jeffree took to YouTube and posted an apology video to James.

“Most of you have seen some brutal tweets that I sent out last week,” the Jeffree Star Cosmetics founder said. “A lot of you have seen the vicious text messages I’ve sent, and I want you to understand something. Because I said those things, that doesn’t equal me hating James Charles. He’s been in my life for a few years now. Are we the best of friends? No. But we had a real connection. I loved and cared about him and I definitely thing I mishandled our friendship.”

In March 2020, Jeffree complimented the YouTuber on Twitter, seemingly putting an end to their longtime feud, until one month later. In April 2020, it looked like Jeffree reignited the drama with James by explaining why he called him a “danger to society” in 2019.

“It’s going to upset a lot of people, but the truth is that someone, and right now I legally can’t say who, told us a few things,” he explained on Daniel “Keemstar” Keem, FaZe Banks and Colossal Is Crazy‘s podcast, “Mom’s Basement.” “And we trusted that person’s opinion, and then another person said some things — that were friends with — and it really convinced us that he was a predator.”

The social media star claimed that he even had a recording of an alleged “victim of James,” and he offered to go into another room and play it for the talk show host.

At the end of the day, I’m not gonna out a victim of James Charles. If it’s real, because I don’t know if it’s real, and I’ll go in another room and play it for you. Everyone wants to make me out ‘You ruined James Charles’ career.’ No, Tati did, and uploaded a 40-minute video about him and she should never have uploaded that. But she did, and for some reason James thinks that me and Shane [Dawson] tried to ruin his life and orchestrated the whole thing like we f**king cares,” Jeffree said.

Then added, “I think James has dealt with enough mental abuse and I don’t know what the future holds. Look, if James Charles is ever listening, call me, or sit down with me, and I will show you what was shown to me, and I will tell you a year later exactly what happened behind-the-scenes. And either he cares or he doesn’t.”

James never publicly responded to Jeffree’s claims on the podcast.

New Year’s Eve Video

In January 2020, James took to Twitter to deny rumors that he used the n-word in a video posted to his Instagram Stories during a New Year’s Eve celebration. The influencer rang in the new year at a party with his friends and during the event, James shared a video of himself singing along to Saweetie‘s “My Type.”

Although it’s since been deleted, some social media users were quick to capture the clip and accused the internet star for seemingly saying the n-word while singing along to the song.

“Why is nobody talking about James Charles SAYING THE N-WORD TWO TIMES IN A IG STORY,” one Twitter user wrote alongside the video. Another added, “James Charles becomes the first cancellation of 2020, for saying the n-word while singing the lyrics to a song.”

After the video began to go viral and #JamesCharlesIsOverParty trended on the social media site, the YouTuber took to Twitter to respond. He claimed that he skipped over the word.

“My guy did [you] say the n-word on [your Instagram Stories],” a fan asked, to which James immediately responded, “No? Turn up the volume & listen, I skip over it. How stupid would I have to be to confidently record a video of me singing the n-word and still have it up the next morning.”

TikTok Star AdamRayOkay

In February 2002, James posted a since-deleted snapchat video imitating the popular Latinx TikTok character Rosa, made popular by AdamRayOkay— whose real name is Adam Martinez. While he was driving, James attempted to copy the character for his own version of one of Rosa’s most popular videos. After he started to receive some social media backlash, the YouTuber took down the video.

Some fans had already captured the clip and reposted the deleted video to Twitter, where it quickly went viral. James came under fire from Twitter users who were upset upon watching his imitation of the character. Rosa fans were quick to slam the YouTuber and said his video was “racist.”

Although some people were upset, it seemed that Adam was not bothered by James’ Rosa video. After the clip went viral, he took to Twitter and wroteOpens in a new Window., “My videos are made to bring JOY to people all around the world. Let’s remember that and keep the positivity going!!!” 

James responded back with, “Love [you].”

The beauty vlogger also took to his own social media and seemingly addressed the situation. Although he didn’t apologize, James acknowledged all the hate that he had been receiving on Twitter.

“I get that a lot of people don’t like me. I’ve learned to accept & understand it — but the extent that some people on this app are willing to go in attempt to ruin my life is truly sad. I hope one day people find a way to feel validation without having to bash others for likes,” he wrote.

After the scandal went down, James and Rosa collaborated for a YouTube video.

TikTok Mugshot Challenge

For those who missed it, with the use of makeup and prosthetics, various influencers were creating mock mugshots and posting them online in April 2017. But when James participated in the challenge and shared a photo which showed him with fake black eyes and a bloody nose, some people felt it glorified domestic abuse.

“Only I could lazily smudge on some purple eyeshadow and fake blood to recreate a dumb TikTok trend and have it twisted into an actual scandal,” he wrote in a now-deleted tweet after he started to receive hate online for it.

But when one fan opened up about her past abuse and admitted the trend has made her feel “dehumanized,” he explained, “I’m so sorry that you went through something so awful and traumatic. It’s a TikTok trend going around where people post their ‘mugshots’ and has nothing to do with domestic violence whatsoever. Love You.”

James continued, “This dumb trend has nothing to do with domestic abuse. What about action movies? Halloween? Special effects? Simple bloody noses? This is nothing new.”

“Despite the fact that hundreds of other influencers and artists have done something similar, I deleted the mugshot trend because it was never my intention to trigger anyone,” he wrote in one final tweet. “It’s a waste of time trying to have an open discussion with people who hate me regardless.”

Trinity ‘The Tuck’ Taylor

In March 2020, James found himself embroiled in a feud with RuPaul’s Drag Race All Star winner Trinity ‘The Tuck’ Taylor after he posted that he had “tested positive for having a fat a**” amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Fat a**? Girl who diagnosed you? Helen Keller,” the Drag Race alum clapped back.

After that, James fired back with a nasty Twitter post of his own, and he even seemingly alluded to the fact that Trinity didn’t deserve to win on Drag Race.

“D**n, she must’ve mistook the lumpy silicone in your face as Braille instead of reading my actual test results,” the YouTuber said. “My mistake… speaking of mistakes, how’s your crown?”

The drama didn’t end there! In another post, Trinity went on to accuse the influencer of cutting in line at Drag Con to meet her. She also claimed that he asked for free products.

“Awe girl that’s cute. Keep reading doll. I’m not the one who tried to break in people’s lines at Drag Con to meet [you] and ask if [you] can ship me free product for a like and a post. But girl do you!” Trinity replied

James then slammed the accusations and provided receipts. He posted screenshots of an alleged previous DM conversation with Trinity and as it turned out, the makeup artist asked to pay for the products. He didn’t want it for free, but just needed expedited shipping.

“Is there any way I could PalPal or Venmo you [to] get them like tomorrow or Wednesday,” the alleged messages read.

Upon seeing the screenshots, Trinity said she remembered James “asking in person,” but told him to “go off.”

In an effort to end the exchange, James replied for a final time, “Haven’t been to Drag Con in over a year. If you’re gonna read me, at least come correct. Not sure why you’re taking this so seriously, I actually really enjoy your work and thought the initial tweet was playful! Wishing you the best.”

‘Instant Influencer’ Backlash

When the cast was announced for his beauty competition series Instant Influencer, some people took to social media and slammed the beauty vlogger for a lack of diversity when choosing competitors for the YouTube show. James did not respond publicly to the fans’ backlash about the contestant, but a few weeks later after viewers criticized one of the show’s challenges, he responded publicly.

The makeup mogul asked his four remaining contestants to film mock videos of themselves apologizing for a fake scandal in an episode, which aired on May 8, 2020.

“As an influencer, when you grow a following, you will either say or do something that people might not like or might not agree with and eventually, you might have to apologize,” he explained.

But some people were not happy with the task, and they quickly started to slam the beauty guru online.

“The way he just confirmed that when white [make up artists] are being called out on their racism or any form of bigotry that the apology videos are not as sincere as y’all really want us to believe,” one fan wrote, to which James quickly replied, “This is a reach. This has nothing to do with skin tone. Influencers of every race have had to apologize for things in the past. This challenge was a lighthearted way to poke fun at cancel culture (hence the stupid scandals) and was in no way meant to invalidate actual bigotry.”

He added, “I can only speak for myself — I’ve had scandals that I have taken very seriously and addressed, such as the ebola joke, but I’ve also been involved with stupid ‘scandals’ due to cancel culture where I’ve had to laugh it off. It’s just reality TV. Not that deep.”