Audiences were shocked when Tati Westbrook uploaded the now-deleted “Bye Sister” video last summer. Fans, and really everybody on the internet, were furious with the serious accusations against James Charles and banned together to cancel him. However, he quickly pointed out the holes in Tati’s story and redeemed himself. So why are we still talking about this? Oh, right, because Tati uploaded a video to confess that Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson manipulated her into starting another Dramageddon.
In order to understand this summer’s recent events, we need to take a look at what happened last year.
COACHELLA (Mid-April 2019)
During Coachella weekend one, James Charles was seen with a mystery boy. Although the two looked like they were getting along in photos, James revealed that the boy, later identified as Gage Gomez, took advantage of James’s kindness and wealth. Since James decided to make this public knowledge by tweeting a fan, Gage responded by making a video claiming James pressured him into questioning his sexuality and even got mad when Gage told him he was straight. There wasn’t much evidence to back up Gage’s story besides screenshots of text conversations, which James later cleared up, but some fans were not convinced James was innocent. Some fans brought up the fact that he discussed that “straight boys” are his type multiple times and flirted excessively and publicly with straight influencers including Jeff Wittek of the Vlog Squad and Kian Lawley.
James Charles was quick to defend himself and revealed that he and Gage were talking via FaceTime, Snapchat, and text messages for several months — five to be exact. James also revealed he understood Gage was questioning his sexuality but advocated that he supported Gage and wanted him to come to California throughout the entirety of their online relationship to see if his feelings were valid. However, Gage refused to come, often lying about having schoolwork, which made James realize he was being used when Gage only wanted to fly out during Coachella weekend. James noticed some seedy behavior going on and his friends were bold enough to tell him Gage wasn’t the person James thought he was.
After this disastrous first weekend, James Charles convinced his friend group to attend Coachella weekend two. At Coachella, there are two types of passes that an influencer could have. VIP passes can be purchased by the public, but influencers tend to get companies to sponsor their weekend and purchase these passes for them. However, there is a ticket level above VIP, an artist pass, that is only available for companies to purchase for their sponsored influencers or for friends or family members of an artist performing, meaning no general public. When James arrived at weekend two, he only had a VIP ticket sponsorship and was quickly ambushed by fans. Since he was trying to make up for the past weekend, James reached out to fellow beauty guru Nikita Dragun and asked about her artist pass tickets that were sponsored by SugarBear Hair. Nikita gave James the contact for SugarBear and soon enough James was able to enjoy his time at Coachella with his new artist pass.
The Monday after weekend two, James posted his SugarBear sponsorship and promoted their new sleep aid. He received almost immediate backlash because fans were confused about why he was promoting the competitor of his friend Tati’s supplement company, Halo Beauty. Although Halo Beauty doesn’t have a sleeping supplement, Tati’s audience was shocked at this betrayal and James posted an apology on his Instagram story.
TATI’S SHOCKING VIDEO (MAY 10, 2019)
Fans thought the drama was over, but Tati decided to open another wound. “Bye Sister” was a forty-minute soliloquy by Tati Westbrook that aimed to destroy James Charles’s career. In this video, Tati accused James of being a bad influence on his young audience and urged him to clean up his act. Tati also admitted that she and her husband truly care for James and that they have helped him both professionally and financially throughout his career, so this was meant out of love.
However, it wasn’t so loving when Tati accused James of being too sexual on his channel and when she revealed that he acted inappropriately towards a waiter at her birthday party. James may have said risqué comments in a video, but he is nineteen and those jokes are common for his age group. Other influencers are doing and filming far worse content for their young audiences. After all, James was one of the few influencers to admit he hated partying and didn’t think underage drinking should be encouraged by people online.
The incident with the waiter, on the other hand, was a much more serious allegation. Tati stated that James and his friends were making sexual comments towards this young man who was simply trying to do his job. When Tati told James that the waiter was straight, James stated that “he was a celebrity” (Yikes, I know, but don’t worry it’s not as bad as you think).
JAMES’S FIRST APOLOGY (May 10, 2019)
James’s first apology video titled “Tati” was, well, horrible. In a desperate way to not dig himself into a bigger hole, James (fake) tearfully apologized to Tati claiming that he never meant to hurt her by accepting the SugarBear Hair sponsorship and he solely did it to have fun at Coachella. He also commented on remarks Tati made about his family and teared up, a little bit more realistic this time, when discussing how strong and supportive his mother has been throughout his career.
This apology video didn’t get James the forgiveness he wanted but instead became a meme and the focus of many commentary videos. People criticized the way James handled the situation and called him out on playing the victim.
JAMES’S SECOND APOLOGY (May 18, 2019)
Just a week later, James uploaded another apology video, this time with fewer tears and a lot more dignity. James went through and explained all the plot holes in Tati’s story. He brought up the fact that he texted Tati and her husband multiple times asking to talk in person. He also mentioned that she lied multiple times including when she claimed James never advertised Halo Beauty in his content, then he went on to play many clips from videos that feature Halo Beauty.
James even explained his side of Tati’s birthday dinner. He claimed that the conversations never got sexual and that his line “I’m a celebrity” is actually an inside joke between him and his friends, a joke that Tati knew and understood yet conveniently forgot about during her video. James even showed the direct messages he received from the waiter in which the waiter reveals he is bisexual – not straight, as Tati claimed in her video.
However, James did discuss that Tati had warned her in the past about flirting with straight men. He revealed that Tati explained how it would continuously hurt James to go after men he will never obtain, but she also warned that men could take advantage of this situation and twist the narrative into something it wasn’t. Which is basically exactly what she did.
After this video, James seemed to clear his name and have fans back on his side.
JEFFREE STAR & SHANE DAWSON’S INVOLVEMENT (2019)
Since this feud was between Tati and James, you might be confused about why Jeffree and Shane are so heavily involved. It’s part of Jeffree’s brand to stick his nose where it doesn’t belong so it wasn’t a big surprise when he got involved in this. Jeffree took to Twitter to attack James’s younger brother, Ian, and publicly questioned Ian’s move back to New York. He also tweeted that he banned James Charles from being in his home after he made Jeffree’s boyfriend Nate uncomfortable. Business-wise, Jeffree’s merch company Killer Merch dropped James’s merch, Sisters Apparel. It was clear Jeffree was on Tati’s side, but when fans were forgiving James, Jeffree was quick to make an apology video. He stated he felt bad for attacking Ian and urged his audience to learn from his mistakes and think before they post anything.
Shane’s drama-filled docu-series about the beauty community couldn’t have been filmed at a better time. Shane was able to catch the drama unfold on camera, and although he wasn’t with either James or Tati during it, he was still able to use it to advertise his series. Fans were critical of his choice to use a scandal he wasn’t involved in or didn’t really mention in his video to make them want to watch it.
JEFFREE REVEALS EVIDENCE (April 28, 2020)
During a pandemic, there should be some reflection on what’s really important in life. For Jeffree Star, it seems that the only important thing is creating drama. On Mom’s Basement podcast, Jeffree revealed that he actually had a voice note from an alleged victim speaking out against James. He even told one of the hosts, popular creator Faze Banks, that he would let him listen to it off the record.
A couple of months later in June, YouTuber Blair White uploaded a video claiming that Jeffree Star showed her the voice note discussed on Mom’s Basement podcast. She stated that although she knew Jeffree has a history of paying off people to do certain tasks for drama, she believed this to be credible. Fans questioned her credibility, however, because Blair has had a past of misinterpreting information for Jeffree’s benefit.
SHANE’S INPUT (June 20, 2020)
Shane decided to upload a text post to Twitter as his final speech to the beauty community. He revealed that although he was proud of the products he and Jeffree Star made together, he would be leaving the community. He blamed it on the toxic atmosphere the beauty industry has created and revealed that there was too much drama for his liking.
Since fans speculated he and Jeffree benefitted from Tati’s takedown of James and therefore had some involvement in it, Shane took this opportunity to clear his name. He revealed that he didn’t warn James about the video, but the two have discussed it in private. Shane even noted that he was happy that James “got a slice of humble pie” (or serious allegations against him, either one Shane)
TATI SPEAKS OUT…AGAIN (June 30, 2020)
Tati uploaded a tearful video titled “Breaking My Silence” where she explained her side of the original video “Bye Sister.” Tati explained that she is taking legal action due to the consequences of this scandal and therefore cannot reveal private messages and all information. However, she did reveal that James came to her house after Shane’s docu-series was uploaded to compare messages. The two worked out their differences and found that they were both victims.
Tati claimed that Shane and Jeffree lied and manipulated her feelings so that she would be the one to speak out against James. (Allegedly) Shane and Jeffree knew Tati was already upset with James and created lies and fake victims that would make Tati want to upload the video. She recalled multiple times where Jeffree and Shane had made negative comments about James’s actions, making her question these actions herself. According to Tati, she thought this video would make James realize his behavior is unacceptable and make him change.
In the video, Tati claimed she never lied in “Bye Sister” but James Charles already revealed her lies in his second apology video last year. She also wanted to emphasize that she wasn’t doing it because of vitamins, yet constantly reminded the audience that James’s sponsorship really hurt her. Viewers of this video may begin to feel bad for Tati, but they haven’t forgotten her attack on James, even if it was instigated by others.
THE AFTERMATH
After Tati uploaded this video, Shane Dawson live-streamed his reaction. This was probably not the best idea due to the fact that his reaction was basically him screaming and calling Tati names. This immature reaction and childish way of handling the situation as a whole, showed Shane didn’t put any thought into this and simply wanted to discredit Tati quickly.
Jeffree Star uploaded a video titled, “Doing What’s Right” where he sat down and apologized for a laundry list of things, including his involvement in the takedown of James Charles. However, he refused to take back his statement that he had evidence against James and went even further to say that his lawyers now have it.
Fans can speculate all they want, but no one knows the truth behind the story besides those involved and even they seem to have no idea what the truth is. It is clear that Jeffree, Shane, and Tati all hoped to gain something out of ruining James Charles. Jeffree and Shane took advantage of an upset and angry friend and used her as a pawn to sell more makeup and make a YouTube docu-series more entertaining.
With that being said, audiences must be aware of the content they are watching and what influencers are doing in order to get the views they do. If Dramageddon 2.0 had any lesson to be learned, it would be to take everything on the internet with a grain of salt and don’t believe anything Jeffree Star tweets (duh).
