James Charles is no stranger to controversy, and he seems to have found himself in hot water once again after uploading a video over the weekend that many are calling “unnecessarily mean” and “tone deaf.” Because of that video, he lost over 130,000 followers, according to SocialBlade, a website that tracks profile statistics across different social media platforms. As of Monday afternoon, he is still hemorrhaging followers.
Charles, a beauty influencer who has over 83.7 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, uploaded the now-deleted video on Friday. In it, he says (in a mocking tone) that he received a DM from a woman asking for donations to her GoFundMe because she lost her job after Spirit Airlines shut down following a bankruptcy filing. She told him, “Any donations help.” To which he laughed and responded, “I’m sure they do, sweetheart.”
“You know what else would help you?” he says in a condescending tone, “Getting another job.” In the two-minute-and-30-second video, he goes off on the woman, saying that in the time it took her to copy and paste the same “fuck ass” message to him (who she doesn’t follow, nor has she “supported” him, he argues), she could have been applying for another job. He goes on to say that the woman is “a lazy piece of shit” and that she’s “entitled.”
He ended up deleting the video, but it still lives on in infamy across social media, as other creators saved and reposted it. One drama channel creator, Rich Lux, reposted the original video to X, and it’s currently amassed over 9.4 million views.
In addition to the general public being upset with his video, Jackie Aina Asamoah, a fellow beauty YouTube content creator and beauty brand founder, lambasted Charles for his insensitive rant in a video that now has over 12 million views. “I don’t think James has ever had a real job,” she says in her video. “And the way you’re talking to this person shows. It is very disgusting and very inappropriate.”
@jackieaina a mess
Not too soon after the video went viral for all the wrong reasons, Charles uploaded an apology to his spam page on Saturday, admitting that the video was “fucking stupid,” adding that it was “rude, obnoxious, privileged, and most importantly, it was completely fucking unnecessary.” His apology currently has over 5.3 million views in two days.
The reason he was annoyed, Charles explains in the apology video, is that, as an influencer, he feels some people who’ve never supported or followed him treat him as a “personal ATM.” He goes on to agree that it’s even harder not to know where the next paycheck is coming from and says that no amount of explanation can excuse his initial video.
In the comments section of his apology video, one person wrote, “Jackie Asamoah hit the nail on the head regarding all this,” to which Charles agreed, saying, “Yes, she definitely did.” Another commenter, who said they’re a single mom of four who just lost her job after her daughter was diagnosed with Crohn’s, added, “I couldn’t imagine how you made her feel. No one controls how they lose their job." Charles responded to her comment, saying he’s sorry to hear about her job and her daughter.
This isn't the first time Charles has lost thousands of followers due to a scandal. In his nascent days on YouTube, following Tati Westbrook’s explosive “Bye Sister” video in 2019, Charles broke the record for most followers lost in a day, which was over one million, and lost over three million in a matter of days. It’s been seven years since that drama (and he’s found himself at the center of many more scandals after that — including accusations of messaging and soliciting nude photographs from minors).
Avan Jogia and Dove Cameron.Prime Video
