YouTube star and beauty guru James Charles who had more than 16.57 million YouTube subscribers including Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian now has 13.99 million with the number steadily falling. James, who saw his career as a YouTuber soaring even venturing at the Met Gala 2019 saw his subscribers take a stooping one million less two days since a bitter feud with fellow makeup and former mentor, Tati Westbrook was made public.
Tati Westbrook, who was once a close associate of the 19-year-old criticised him in a 43-minute video over his decision to promote a competitor, Sugar Bear Hair supplements to his Instagram story who happened to be a huge competitor of Westbrook's supplement brand, Halo Beauty.
Tati said it was the final straw in a string of incidents that led to her wanting to end their friendship and 'all association' with him. She accused him of being unsupportive and said she felt betrayed. Charles later apologized to Westbrook in a statement posted to his Instagram story.
In the video, she accused Charles of spreading lies about her and called him out for saying hurtful things about other people in the beauty community. She also alleges that Charles was attempting to 'turn straight men gay'
"You tried to trick a straight man into thinking that he's gay yet again, and somehow you're the victim. You know it's really disgusting to manipulate someone's sexuality... you are using your fame, your power, your money to play with people's emotions.
"You're threatening to ruin them, you're threatening to embarrass them, and you're doing that to have them behave sexually in your favour even if they're straight, and you know what, that's not okay’’ Westbrook alleges.
Following the release of Westbrook's video, Charles posted a video on his own channel apologising for "everything that I put you through".
Charles apologized again to her and her husband in a YouTube on Friday and addressed the points made by Westbrook in her video.
"To Tati and James Westbrook I'm sorry for everything that is going on, everything that I've put you through over the past few weeks," Charles said.
"Most of my career over the past few years has been about me making mistakes and trying to learn and grow from them. I haven't always done the best job of that, I can admit that," he added. "But I have always tried."
Charles, who is worth an estimated $12m (£9m), has earlier collaborated with celebrities including Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian and Demi Lovato.