Public scandals are never easy to deal with. Just ask James Charles, who after feuding with former friend Tati Westbrook in May, is still dealing with the aftermath.
“I’m not mentally in a place where I want to be,” the 20-year-old told Paper in an interview published on Tuesday, November 26. “What’s even harder to swallow is that it’s been six months since all the drama happened. I thought by this time I’d be completely good — back to normal, if you will — and that’s not the case.”
In case you need a refresher, the feud all started when Tati uploaded a 43-minute YouTube video, in which she called James out for his inconsiderate behavior for the last few years. The 37-year-old revealed the last straw for her was when he promoted Sugar Bear Hair supplements, who provided him with security at Coachella. This was a big deal to Tati because they are rivals to Halo Beauty products, which is her own brand.
“It is more than one thing,” Tati explained in her video at the time. “It wasn’t specifically just about vitamins or about Halo. But it was just about being lied to and feeling disrespected … He had nine days after Coachella to talk to me, he knows where I live — it’s not far from him — he could’ve come face to face and chatted with me because he knew that this would hurt me.”
It’s been half a year, and James is still doing his best to put the past behind him. Unfortunately, it’s affected more than just him. In Tati’s video, she claimed the beauty vlogger tried to seduce a straight man, which naturally didn’t sit well with James. “What that statement implies is that gay men are all predatory, which is disgusting, not true and very dangerous to put out there,” he told the outlet. “The whole situation was scary for the LGBTQ+ community and paints a really bad picture of gay men.”
James also set the record straight on what really happened between him and the hook-up Tati referred to in her video. “The reality is that the ‘hook-up’ that was being discussed was completely consensual,” he divulged. “It was with a boy who told me that he was bisexual and later on told the world he was bisexual. Therefore there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Hopefully, James finds peace moving forward.