James Charles has opened up about the Tati Westbrook drama that happened six months ago.

During an interview in the new issues of PAPER Magazine, the makeup guru discussed the scandal that almost destroyed his entire career.

Earlier this year, Westbrook uploaded a series of videos that were allegedly exposing Charles and his attempt “to trick a straight man into thinking he’s gay,” as she slammed him and called him “disgusting” for trying to “manipulate someone’s sexuality.”

The entire ordeal left James losing tens of thousands of YouTube subscribers and followers across his social media, amongst thousands of negative comments. In a snapback video, the 20-year-old brought “receipts” into the mix, by revealing messages and conversations that took place between him and Tati — which in turn caused backlash for the 37-year-old make-up artist.

Post-drama, six months later, James has explained he’s still “not mentally in a place where I want to be.” He continued, “What’s even harder to swallow is that it’s been six months since all the drama happened. I thought by this time I’d be completely good — back to normal, if you will — and that’s not the case.”

The YouTube star said, “We’re quickly getting to a point where cyberbulling, hating and cancel culture is getting stronger. I can say firsthand, they go to me. I was so grateful to be surrounded by close friends and family that were checking on me all day long, every single day, in the middle of the night, every 10 minutes to make sure I didn’t do something that I could never take back.”

Since all of this took place, it has given Charles an insight and the “red flags” to look out for when connecting with new people. He said, “I’ve gotten really good at seeing those early on. You just never know what people’s true intentions are. With my job, there are so many blessings but a lot of people see them as an opportunity for themselves to either come up, get financial gain, get followers or attention or take me down with them, which has been attempted. I’m just careful … and lonely.”

Westbrook criticised James six months ago, saying that he used his platform to prey on men. Charles believes those kind of accusations perpetrated a homophobic narrative, saying, “What that statement implies is that gay men are all predatory, which is disgusting, not true and very dangerous to put out there. The whole situation was scary for the LGBTQ+ community and paints a really bad picture of gay men.”

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