Jeffree Star Responds to the James Charles and Tati Westbrook Drama: 'This Has to Stop'
One day after James Charles attempted to clear up up several of the allegations made against him amid his ongoing feud with fellow YouTuber and ex BFF Tati Westbrook, Jeffree Star (who was mentioned frequently in Charles’ lengthy video) shared his own side of the story.
“I know a lot of you are sick and tired of hearing about the subject. I think things are getting crazy dangerous and we need to have a conversation. Yesterday James uploaded a video. There was mentions of me in there. For hours yesterday it took me back to the old Jeffree and I was in a very dark place,” Star said in his video titled “Never Doing This Again.”
While Star threatened to expose Charles by revealing text messages, voice memos and more, the YouTuber took a step back and decided against fueling the fire.
“You guys know me for always sticking up for what I believe in. Has it gotten me in trouble before? Absolutely. Sometimes I’ve spoken too much and I think that this week was definitely one of those scenarios. Most of you have seen some brutal tweets I sent out last week,” Star said. “A lot of you have seen the vicious texts I sent. Because I said those things, that does not equal me hating James Charles. I definitely think I mishandled our friendship.”
In Westbrook’s original 43-minute tear-down of Charles, she accused the 19-year-old of having a habit of sexually harassing straight men and referenced a specific occasion at her birthday dinner in Seattle. Star was also at the dinner and opened up about the different stories circulating about what really happened that night.
“After Seattle, which there is so many rumors. Everyone has their own version of the story. We were all there. I think there is a major portion that thinks Jeffree Star is going to come for James. I said some things online about pulling receipts. I was gonna pull voice memos. I was getting into a place where it wasn’t healthy. I stopped those feelings. I let them all subside. I am not going to fuel this fire bigger so everyone can get more entertainment. Behind the scenes, this isn’t funny. I inserted myself publicly that I shouldn’t have,” he said.
Star added: “They want me to sit here and degrade James. They want me to open up my phone and expose it all. I am willing to bite the bullet and let anyone think what they want. I will not be exposing anything more. This has to stop. After Seattle, yes. me and Nate were very uncomfortable with things that happened. We were kind of getting distant from James. What I should have done is vented all my feelings to James.”
In a since-deleted Tweet, Star called Charles a “danger to society” and revealed Charles had been “banned” from his Calabasas mansion.
Charles addressed Star’s actions and called him out during his 41 minute video. “Jeffree’s messaging about me both in private and in public was hurtful, defamatory, extremely excessive, but most importantly, literally all based on lies. I wish I knew why he was doing all this but at the same time, but at the same time, his track record with public feuds makes none of this a surprise,” he said.
As the video continued, Charles also addressed claims made against him by Star, which included allegations that Charles had pursued an inappropriate relationship with the younger brother of Star’s boyfriend.
“Not only did I not pursue Zach, who identifies as ‘mainly straight,’ but it was Jeffree who suggested that I talk to him in the first place,” Charles shared, before pulling up a clip from a video the two beauty influencers had filmed together in the past, where Star did mention that his brother’s boyfriend was Charles’ type.
Ultimately in his own video, Star admitted he wishes he hadn’t sent the tweets out in anger.
“I want to say that I regret them. I don’t regret much in my life but I regret hitting the send button because they were bigger and louder than I ever imagined and it made things worse. Everyone is so used to Jeffree being the most controversial person in the beauty community. Before fully accusing an individual of doing anything I need more facts,” Star said.
Like both Charles and Westbrook, Star said he planned to take some much-needed time off from YouTube while apologizing to his followers for bringing Charles and Westbrook’s feud even more into the public eye.
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“I am embarrassed of myself. I also owe an apology to my audience for bringing something public and inserting myself in someone else’s beef, drama, situation, whatever you want to call it. I should of kept my mouth shut. And I didn’t. This beauty community right now is suffering. When you have a voice and millions of followers you need to use that in a positive light. There are people, including myself, that maybe have abused the power. Today, this is done. It’s over,” he said.
Star continued: “I don’t want anyone that is inspired by me to think that gossip, hate and negativity is how you get popular. It’s not respectable at all and I’ve had to learn the hard way. I want you guys to know I am not who I used to be and I haven’t been for a while. I will never handle a situation like this again.”
