The drama never ends in the YouTube beauty community. Tati Westbrook sent fans (and Twitter) into a frenzy when she posted a 43-minute video titled “Bye Sister” all about why she ended her friendship with James Charles, despite being close for many years, on May 10, 2019. Things only got crazier when Tati apologized and blamed Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson for “manipulating her” into making it in a new video on June 30, 2020. Let’s go back to the beginning and check out a timeline of James and Tati’s friendship and ongoing drama.
James lost a million followers, and Tati gained a million, in the first 24 hours after Tati accused James of betraying her by supporting another vitamin brand and preying on younger men in her “Bye Sister” video, which became the biggest follower loss ever at the time. By the following Monday, James had gone from around 17 million followers to just under 14 million. Meanwhile, Tati went from over 5 million to over 9 million. Jeffree congratulated her publicly for each million while regaining his own title of the most followed beauty YouTuber, which he previously lost to James.
In her June 2020 video, Tati explained that she believes this type of success was exactly the reason Jeffree convinced Tati James was a villain and encouraged her to make the video “exposing him” in the first place. “It’s now my opinion that both Jeffree and Shane were bitterly jealous of James Charles’ success,” she said. “Jeffree resented that so much of his [merchandise] business was centered around his biggest rival, and Shane did not like that James wanted to make a documentary.”
“Neither of them were happy with standing in his shadow on YouTube anymore,” she continued. “It’s also my opinion that Jeffree and Shane needed James marginalized and out of the way for their November launch of the Conspiracy palette, along with Shane’s merch. Allowing myself to be gaslit into making that video is one of the biggest regrets of my life.”
Despite all of the drama, Tati and James’ friendship came out stronger on the other side. She said they met up and forgave each other, and that she will “always love” the younger YouTuber. For a full history of their friendship and feud, scroll through the gallery below.