The plot thickens!!
Tati Westbrook has returned to YouTube, and is here with some pretty serious accusations against Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star, who she says fed her “poisonous lies” in an attempt to take down James Charles last spring.
In a 40-minute video titled “BREAKING MY SILENCE…” — posted to her channel on Tuesday — Westbrook claims she was “manipulated” and “gaslit” by the pair out of jealousy over Charles’ breakout success within the community.
Related: YouTube Suspends Monetization On All Three Of Shane Dawson’s Channels
Referencing her now infamous “BYE SISTER” video, which was posted in May 2019 and has since been removed per YouTube’s recommendation, the 38-year-old claims she was “manipulated” and “beyond gaslit” into making it:
“I did not make my video because of vitamins. I made it as a result of all the poisonous lies that were fed to me by Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star.”
She also claimed that Star — who at the time called James a “danger to society” — had sent her audio recording of someone alleging they were hurt by James (likely the same audio Blaire White heard, which she discussed in her new tell-all vid), explaining:
“The audio was clearly a small portion of a large conversation. It wasn’t enough for me to contact the authorities. It was enough to scare me. As a victim of abuse myself I know how terrifying it is to think of facing public humiliation and legal proceedings. It was not my place to contact authorities or the alleged victim and I made no mention of it in my video.
In the time since last year’s explosion of drama, Westbrook explained (below) the significant toll things have taken on her physically and mentally:
“For the next few months I was tormented with subtweets, and innuendo that there was drama around the corner. I felt that I was a liability to them, and that I knew too much, so I put all my text messages and other files on a hard drive and told a few people that I was afraid for my life and had given everything to my lawyers. I was hoping that information would leak because I thought it might keep me safe. My mental and physical health suffered. My businesses suffered. It was all I could do to pull myself together for the launch of Tati Beauty. Last fall I became so afraid to stay in my LA home, that I bulk filmed a lot of videos and left town in October to get away from it all. I was so upset that I continued to lose weight, couldn’t sleep, and slowly I became a shell of my former self.”
Also in the video, Tati made additional claims, including that Jeffree is a secret co-owner of popular beauty brand Morphe, and that he has the ammo and power to “blackmail” the entire beauty guru industry. The YouTuber has also requested of Shane that the drama surrounding her and James not be in his YT docuseries about the beauty community, but has not spoken to Jeffree or Shane in some time.
She explained:
“The last time I spoke with either Jeffree or Shane on the phone was the night before Jeffree’s “Never Doing This Again” video. Shortly after the relationship dissolved entirely. And I was so confused. I bought into the conspiracy theory that what happened was all a social experiment, and that maybe James Charles was even involved and that there was going to be a big reveal in Shane’s docuseries. And that I would be the fool who fell for it. Shane never reached out to check on me and he never shared the trailer with me. The last time we spoke on the phone was before Jeffree’s apology video, and I asked him not to include the drama in the series. He only texted me after the trailer was live with an audio message telling me to not worry about it. The drama was only going to be one episode.”
Today, James and Tati are on good terms again, despite all that went down last spring. The two met in December and were able to “realize what actually happened” by comparing messages and their stories. Though they may have mended their friendship, Westbrook warned viewers this situation is far from over:
“Make no mistake, this is far from over. I’ve been terrified for a very long time. So much so that I had to relocate again two months ago and I have taken serious security precautions to insure my safety. On the advice of my attorneys I can not share with all of you right now the evidence that we have accumulated of the events that have occurred. However, there will soon come a day where we will be able to present this evidence and you’ll be able to see why it is we believe Jeffree and Shane are responsible for so much of the damage that has been caused. I can tell you this. It’s now my opinion that Jeffree and Shane were both bitterly jealous of James Charles’ success. Jeffree resented that so much of his business was centered around his biggest rival and Shane did not like that James Charles wanted to make a documentary. Neither of them were happy with standing in his shadow on YouTube anymore. I believe James Charles was gaining more followers and receiving more views, and more press faster than anyone in the history on the platform.”
Towards the end of the vid, the Halo Beauty founder shared she would take legal action if necessary:
“As for everyone else involved that did anything underhanded or defamatory over the last year, I am still well within the statute of limitations for bringing a civil action to seek recovery for my damages. Should I proceed with this course of action, my attorneys will be deposing all witnesses who have information about the truth of what happened here. So for everyone else whose hands are dirty and they have yet to come forward, be careful of your allegiance. You don’t want to be on the wrong side of the truth.”
Ch-ch-check out Tati’s full video (below):
And Shane has already responded! Not long after Westbrook’s video went live on Tuesday, Dawson went live on Instagram as he watched the vid for the first time, initially saying “Oh my God” for several minutes as he paced throughout his house.
As Tati’s voice played in the background, he said:
“This person, literally, Oh my God. Oh my god, I need to get through this video…”
The 31-year-old claimed (below) that she is actually the one twisting and manipulating the situation, not him:
“You are so manipulative. You’re fake crying. You are fake crying, that is not real. Oh my god.”
His fiancé, Ryland Adams, can also be heard in the background telling Shane to end the video, which he eventually did. Dawson then tweeted, though has since deleted:
“THIS IS A F**KING LIE AND IM LOSING MY MIND!!!!!!!!!!”
Adams also sent off a series of tweets about the video upload with his thoughts:
That was… A LOT!! Thoughts, Perezcious readers?? Let us know (below) in the comments!!
[Image via Tati Westbrook/James Charles/Shane Dawson/Jeffree Star/YouTube.]
The post Tati Westbrook Addresses James Charles Drama — And Says Jeffree Star & Shane Dawson ‘Manipulated’ Her! appeared first on Perez Hilton.