Makeup YouTube veteran Tati Westbrook is back on the platform following a cascade of drama and legal matters over the last year.
With a video aptly titled "A Year Later ..." Westbrook announced she will be getting "back to the makeup" and "back to the reviews." However, she spent the majority of the video addressing the myriad issues that led her to sign off for a year and "work on myself," as she put it.
The first fallout of the "avalanche" of problems that she described was from the now-infamous 40-minute "Breaking My Silence" video she released last June.
Westbrook has since deleted the video, but in it, she apologized to James Charles for making the also now-infamous "Bye, Sister" video about him in 2019, in which she accused Charles of being predatory and manipulative.
In the 2020 video, Westbrook claimed she "allowed Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson to drive a wedge" between herself and Charles by manipulating her into badmouthing Charles publicly.
That video spawned Dawson to react explosively in a live video, in which he claimed Westbrook was the "manipulative" one and that she was "fake crying."
"My world was coming to a halt," Westbrook said in her latest video, describing the fanbases that came for her and everyone involved in the scandal. "During that time, I was getting the most intense harassment. I'm talking death threats that were explicit in detail, people saying they were going to hunt me down ... there were things that were happening that were so appalling."
She said she made the decision then to take a break so she "could regroup and stand strong and come back" and has been silent since.
During her time off from posting, Westbrook and her husband faced a massive lawsuit from their business partner, Clark Swanson, who accused the couple of fraud and negligence for how they handled their joint company Halo Beauty. According to the suit, Swanson claimed Westbrook and her husband, James, breached agreements they settled on that left Swanson out of their deal.
In her video, Westbrook addressed the legal matter. "I never left Halo. I always stayed active as the CEO," she said. "I am still currently, actively today going through litigation — it is overwhelming, but I'm going to keep fighting the good fight for truth and for justice."
She called the lawsuit from Swanson "something that just blindsided" her. She revealed she has been forced to downsize her homes and lifestyle as she battles the suit and that she and James "almost got divorced."
Westbrook went on to explain that she is no longer wearing her wedding ring because she had taken it off during the time she and James were having marital problems. Unfortunately, she added, she lost the ring when she had confused where she had stored her ring and accidentally put it in a bag that she then donated.
Now, she said, she and James are on better terms. "We were not getting along, but now we're back," she said.
Westbrook is among a growing group of YouTubers who have been taking extended breaks from social media, with some citing mental health as their reason for leaving and others blaming online bullying.