After national media attention following her falling out with fellow YouTube beauty vlogger James Charles, Tati Westbrook has posted another video titled "Why I Did It..." In it, she addresses further criticism that she used this "feud" to gain clout and increase her following (her channel grew to 1o million subscribers while James lost several million in the wake of this drama).
This is her first official response since James posted his own apology video after Tati's original 40-minute tell-all. This also comes after another beauty influencer, Nikita Dragun, came out in James's defense with text screenshots that didn't quite add up.
As a quick refresher: Tati, who was a mentor and close friend to James, called him out in a 40-minute video for posting a promotion for a supplement brand that is a direct competitor to her own brand, Halo Beauty. She also discussed other reasons she was distancing herself from him, including his ego, how he pursued men he was interested in, and feeling disrespected.
In her latest video, during which she is visibly upset and teary-eyed, Tati calls on her followers to stop picking sides. "I do, really, want the hate to stop. I want the picking sides, and the abusive memes and language, I really hope on both sides, it can stop," she says. "I don't want you guys to subscribe, I don't want you to feel bad for me. I don't want you to feel sorry for me. This is not about me. I don't need 'Team Tati.' I don't need any of that."
She also says that if she really wanted James to be "canceled" she could have said yes to all the interview offers she was receiving on different networks. Instead of a takedown, Tati explains that her original video, now watched by 47 million, was actually a "last ditch effort" to "wake up someone that I really love—and still do—before they go and make some serious mistakes." She adds that she tried to set up a meeting to clear the air with James at one of the Google offices, but is "losing the ability to reach" him. "I really hope that you guys see that this is a cut that is much deeper than vitamins," she says.
Tati closes by saying that she "needs distance" from her relationship with James and plans to take a break from posting videos to her channel altogether. She usually posts three times a week. "This is forcing me to really look at what really matters," she says. "And, is working so much really worth it? Is doing all this at such a speed really worth it?"
