• Viral badge

The James Charles/Tati Westbrook Drama Just Got Even Messier After Screenshots Were Posted On Twitter

Nikita Dragun posted the receipts on social media in an apparent bid to help Charles. However, it might've just backfired.

If you haven't heard about the drama between Beauty YouTubers James Charles and Tati Westbrook by now, I can only assume you've had no internet access for the last week. Seriously, how could you have missed it?!

For those of you who need a quick refresher, here's the brief version: The two have been close for a while, but their friendship seemed to come to an end recently when Charles promoted a rival brand on his Instagram story. Yes, this all started over some vitamins.

When Westbrook uploaded an Instagram story of herself crying over the situation, Charles posted an apology in response where he tried to explain what had happened. In the message, Charles said that SugarBearHair had helped him out with security at Coachella and so, in return, he had posted the ad.

However, Westbrook wasn't buying it — and so she uploaded a 43-MINUTE VIDEO that basically kickstarted the "James Charles is cancelled" train.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

In the video, Westbrook accused Charles of being egotistical and a terrible friend. She also alleged that Charles had a problematic history of trying to hook up with straight men, recounting a story that took place at her birthday dinner in February. Westbrook also suggested that Charles' SugarBearHair-sponsored post was preplanned between him and the brand ahead of Coachella. At last look, the video had almost 40 million views.

Charles quickly uploaded a video of his own, an eight-minute apology where he took responsibility for being a bad friend. To date, the video has almost 40 million views and 2.6 million dislikes.

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

However, the apology video did little to make the situation better. In fact, Charles has lost almost 3 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, 1.2 million of which he lost in just one day.

Meanwhile, Westbrook's YouTube following has spiked significantly. Since Friday, when she posted her video, she has gained almost 4 million subscribers.

So, that brings us to today, four days after the drama started, when Charles' friend, Nikita Dragun, posted screenshots of text messages between the pair trying to prove that Charles hadn't preplanned to work with Westbrook's rival brand.

heard a situation needed some clarification 👀 my friend was in an emergency and texted me in the moment... unfortunately since @dragunbeauty used all of our marketing budget on the 𝓯𝓪𝓷𝓽𝓪𝓼𝔂, i connected him with sugar bear. nothing shady.

In one of the screenshots, Charles asked Dragun if she could text someone from SugarBearHair to get artist passes, claiming that the VIP area at Coachella wasn't safe.

In another screenshot, apparently showing a group chat between Dragun and SugarBearHair, the brand agreed and asked for Charles' number.

However, YouTube drama channel Tea Spill responded to the screenshots, saying they didn't quite add up to the original story that Charles had said.

Alright so... James texted Nikita asking if she could get him a SBH sponsorship but he told me that he was being mobbed and sugar bear reached out to HIM.. sister lied to me 💔

Tea Spill then posted a screenshot of its own, apparently showing an earlier message from Charles telling his side of the story.

Tea Spill added another screenshot into the mix, where Charles explained that SugarBearHair had asked him to do an Instagram story advertising its new sleep vitamins.

People also noticed that the timestamps on Dragun's texts seemed to contradict Charles' story. In the ad that started all this drama, Charles said that he'd met SugarBearHair during weekend one of Coachella (April 12–14) and that the company helped with security. Many people assumed this meant it gave Charles the artist passes that same weekend.

The text messages posted by Dragun are dated April 20, meaning they were sent the weekend after Charles supposedly met SugarBearHair for the first time.

People not only questioned the time difference, but they also struggled to believe all the texts had been sent within a two-minute window (between 7:19pm and 7:21pm).

@Macchiatos4ever @the_chubby_nerd @NikitaDragun @dragunbeauty Either theyre fake or theyre staged so that his story looks like it has receipts. Either way, im not buying it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@NikitaDragun @gabrielzamora @dragunbeauty Getting a response in under 2 minutes from a rep regarding a spare pass... And let’s not forget the fact that he had the pass on that morning in his snaps... I smell something funky

@KristeaFedak @NikitaDragun @dragunbeauty They really didn't think this through 😂

If Dragun thought her receipts were going to change public opinion, it didn't quite go according to plan. For one, people couldn't understand why Dragun would wait so long to post them, especially since the drama has since sprouted a hundred heads and no longer seems to be about the vitamins.

Imagine waiting til your friend loses 3 million subs & is dragged all over the internet / media...& then coming forward saying “heard a situation needed clarification”. 😂 https://t.co/EViXRWj4DO

@NikitaDragun @dragunbeauty Everyone keeps talking about the vitamins. That's not why he's cancelled

Others said the receipts didn't help at all and instead showed that Charles was willing to get in touch with his close friend's main competitor without hesitation.

@LordChadwick79 @NikitaDragun @dragunbeauty @jamescharles Exactly! Lmfao. This doesn’t help him at all at this point.

@NikitaDragun @dragunbeauty This still Paints him as a snake. He knowingly asked for help, knowingly betrayed his friend for a good time, wasn’t even taking the sleep pills, it was only for the pass and he is still a liar, lying to his audience about him taking the pills. Thanks for the info!

Some people did jump to Charles' defence though, saying the whole thing wasn't that serious.

@NaudiaAmane @gabrielzamora @TeaSpillYT I thought the same. People are so emotional, they're digging too deep to find whatever "tea" they can. This is not tea. Gabby was right. All this basically WAS over vitamins. I'm disappointed in the internet right now tbh.

Either way, it doesn't look like this drama is ending any time soon. BuzzFeed has reached out to SugarBearHair and representatives of Charles for comment.