What Is the Tati Westbrook Scandal? She Broke Her Social Media Silence

The public feud between Tati Westbrook and her former protege James Charles played out for the world to see. Tati had gotten upset that James promoted a haircare brand that she felt was a competitor to her own company. 

After James issued an apology on his Instagram stories, Tati posted a lengthy YouTube video entitled “Bye Sister” about her decision to terminate her friendship with the Instant Influencer host. She noted that she felt betrayed because she helped James exponentially in developing his career, and that money seemed to come before their friendship. 

After James posted his response to Tati and continued getting more business opportunities, Tati stayed relatively silent on social media. She even deleted the video (but it has been re-uploaded by other accounts). Many fans interpreted as her admission of guilt that she had tried to get James canceled. 

In her “Breaking My Silence” video, Tati explained that the scandal actually made her fearful of the internet, and she was constantly accused of being a villain online. She also claimed that she was coerced into releasing the video about James by none other than Jeffree Star and Shane Dawson. 

Tati said that James had visited her home in December of 2019, and that the two compared their texts, voice notes, and other “receipts” from Shane and Jeffree. During their YouTube series, The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star, Jeffree and Shane had used the feud between Tati and James to get buzz and clicks.

“We apologized, to each other, forgave each other, and agreed to wait patiently until it was safe for me to share my story. Since that night, James Charles has repeatedly said that he wanted to be by my side for this video. I felt that it was important that I do it alone. He deserves an apology,” she said through tears. 

Tati explained the history of her friendship with James, and that she had grown frustrated with his sense of entitlement in May of 2019. She said that these frustrations were exacerbated when she spoke about them with Shane Dawson. 

“I made [the video] as a result of all the poisonous lies that were fed to me by Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star,” Tati said in one of the more shocking moments from her video. She went on to say that she was made to be “weaponized” against James. 

She then accused Jeffree and Shane of “gaslighting” her to make the video. 

“The information they were giving me was terrifying,” Tati continued as she addressed James directly. “I thought your career and freedom were in jeopardy. I was trying to get you to put your phone down and seek help, because I was told that a lot of victims were going to come forward to destroy you.”

Tati subsequently apologized for ever making the “Bye Sister” video. 

“I should have known better than to fall for their lies and manipulation,” Tati admitted. 

After becoming friends with Jeffree in 2017, Tati said that he always was nice to her. But, she had heard stories about how nasty he could be to other creators. 

“As time went on, I learned that being friends with Jeffree Star was like being friends with a lion. Yes, he may have been dangerous, but he was always really kind to me… Overall I thought he was growing as a person, and I thought that I could be an example for him,” she said.

In her video, Tati explained that her friendship with Jeffree came at a tremendous price. She apologized to fellow beauty creator Jackie Aina because she had called Jeffree out for being racist in 2018. The day after the accusations came out, Jeffree and Tati released a video collaboration together. 

“I was a fool for thinking that I could ever help him become a better person,” Tati said in a foreboding tone. 

Tati said she was naive to think that Jeffree was not being racist at the time, and that she should never have collaborated with him in a video.

“For the record, loud and clear, I’ve always liked you,” Tati said to Jackie. “I’ve always enjoyed the interactions that we’ve had face-to-face. I let you down. And I am so genuinely sorry for that.”

After apologizing to Jackie Aina, Tati said that Jeffree would communicate the most with her when he found out scandalous information about other YouTubers. She said that he claimed he had “dirt” on many top content creators, and that she assumed that he would “go off” on them all after watching her video. 

“We need to forgive the people that he is holding hostage with veiled threats of exposure,” she said. “We need to forgive them, otherwise, this won’t stop.”

Tati then discussed her relationship with Shane. They first met after he reached out, and she was eager for the chance to meet with him. She said that she regretted not researching him more (and uncovering his past problematic videos), and she had hoped he would offer to make a docu-series with her.

She alleged that she shared personal details to him about a past sexual assault. She claimed that she later learned that he had recorded this conversation.

Shane later told her that the focus of The Beautiful World of Jeffree Star was shifting to include the pedophilia accusations against James Charles. 

Tati claimed that Jeffree and Shane gave her a ton of information about James that made her “feel sick.” She believed all that they were telling her, and she thought that many of James’ victims were going to come forward.

She alleged that Shane offered to edit her “Bye Sister” video, and that he may have leaked its existence to the press before it was released. After she posted the video, she said that nobody came forward against James for any form of assault.  

Toward the end of her video, Tati discussed at length, for the first time, how the drama has affected her. She claimed that she had been planning to start fertility treatment in 2019, but that her body had become too frail to support a pregnancy. She said that she lost weight and became a shell of her former self.

She stated that she has relocated two times in the months since she posted “Bye Sister,” and that she has a security team now to protect her.

While she claimed that she could not share the evidence that she has against Jeffree and Shane, she hopes she will be able to at some point. 

She believes that Jeffree was motivated by jealousy toward James. 

Tati concluded her video by saying that she was still within the statute of limitations to bring civil action against those who harmed her after “Bye Sister.”

Neither Shane nor Jeffree has commented on Tati’s video as of presstime. Viewers have dubbed the video as “Karmageddon.” You can watch her video in full below.