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It all started on Friday when Tati Westbrook, a long-time member of the YouTube makeup and beauty community, posted a 43-minute video describing how she thought she had been harmed by James Charles, another beauty influencer who experienced a meteoric rise to YouTube's glory. .
Westbrook, which owns a beauty supplement company, has been talking about rumors that have been going on for weeks. She said she was hurt and betrayed when Charles posted a paid ad for a competing company in her Instagram magazine in April. She described how she and her husband spent years mentoring Charles and offering him business advice, but were blinded by Charles's decision to join the competitor.
"It's more than one thing – it's not just about vitamins … but about lying and feeling disrespected," Westbrook said in a confession video, which was seen more than 11 million times in less than 24 hours. .
Charles had previously indicated that he had chosen to post the competitor's advertisement after the company helped him by providing a security guard after an unspecified security situation at Coachella. He doubled this statement in a video response Friday evening in which he apologized publicly to Westbrook and her husband, James.
"I was so disappointed with myself that I ruined our relationship that mattered to me, even though I did not do the best job to show it all the time," he said. declared. "I will continue to do my best, continue to learn and grow and be the best version of myself I can be, I am sorry."
Westbrook made additional allegations about Charles' behavior based on comments he had made at social gatherings that she said left her embarrassed.
"At this point, the truth does not matter.It's the feelings that act.Not matter what happened, I hurt two very important people," he said. said Charles. By noon Saturday, his video had been seen more than 8 million times.
Despite Charles' mea culpa, the reaction of viewers was swift as the beauty community drew a line in the sand. From Friday morning to Saturday night, Charles has lost more than 1.5 million of its 16.57 million subscribers, according to data from the social analysis firm SocialBlade, which indicates that its total number of subscribers has fallen to 14 , 9 million.
Westbrook has meanwhile earned nearly 1.5 million subscribers during the same period.
Prior to Friday 's events, both channels were showing steady growth, each adding several thousand subscribers each day over the previous two weeks. The number of Charles readers began to decline, albeit modestly, on Tuesday, May 7, after making a comment comparing influencers to other underrepresented populations in the media.
Although Charles and Westbrook are not widely known outside of the YouTube beauty community, they are monsters on the platform, each posting more than a billion video views. SocialBlade estimates that they earn respectively $ 4 million and $ 1.4 million in advertising revenue on YouTube each year. This figure includes revenue from merchandising operations and other commercial enterprises.
Charles was CoverGirl's first spokesperson, while Westbrook, who joined YouTube in 2010, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering beauty personalities of the platform.
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