Jeffree Star addresses “predator” accusations against James Charles

YouTuber and makeup mogul Jeffree Star has addressed claims made against fellow beauty guru James Charles in 2019, where he accused the young entertainer of “predatory” behavior.

James Charles notably came under fire in May 2019, after mentor and fellow YouTuber Tati Westbrook accused her protegee of using his fame to manipulate the sexuality of straight men, among other accusations.

This led to a slew of comments from other creators in YouTube beauty space addressing the topic — most notably from Jeffree Star, who dubbed Charles a “danger to society” in a now-deleted Tweet, where he also admitted to banning him from his home.

That’s not all: Star even called Charles a “predator” in a deleted Tweet response to the YouTuber’s 17-year-old brother Ian Jeffrey, appearing to tie his move back to New York City as part of Charles’ alleged behavior.

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However, Charles later came out with a video debunking Tati’s claims, leading to backlash against Tati and the resurgence of the thousands of subscriber’s he’d lost — as well as an apology video from Star.

Despite a year having passed since the scandal, Star’s “predator” accusations against Charles were brought up once more in an April 2020 episode of the FaZe Banks’ ‘Mom’s Basement’ podcast, causing Star to clarify his stance on the topic.

“The truth is that someone — and right now, I legally can’t say who — told us a few things,” he explained. “And we trusted that person’s opinion. And then another person said some things that was friends with that man, and it really convinced us that he was a predator.”

(Topic begins at 43:50 for mobile readers)

That’s not all: Star went on to call one of his sources a “victim” of Charles, and even claimed to have potential evidence of the accusations on his phone, but ultimately held back from exposing his sources’ identities for fear of legal backlash and uncertainty over the truth of the matter.

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Since the podcast episode aired, critics have hit back at Star for seemingly lying about his previous accusations against James Charles — but he clarified that they have no drama between them, and even invited the “Instant Influencer” host for a chat to discuss the scandal.

For now, all fans can do is watch and wait to see if Charles accepts his invitation a year after dramageddon struck the beauty community.