James Charles is a widely recognized beauty influencer, makeup artist, and entrepreneur who started as an influencer on makeup tutorials on YouTube and quickly grew to millions of devoted viewers and followers. While Charles’s creative abilities have led to a large, sustainable following, He has garnered monumental controversy along the way, most notably the feuds he had with other creators and the recent scandal in 2021 regarding texting underage boys. Charles was involved in a public scandal regarding texting underage boys, ultimately admitting his culpability before taking a brief Break from social media.
Charles found himself dunked into another controversy, about a high-profile domestic abuse case involving TikTok star Kayla Malec and her former boyfriend Evan Johnson. Malec, who has over 16 million followers on TikTok and 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube, posted about her case in early April, showing two separate emotional videos entitled ‘He doesn’t love you.” In the four-hour, two-part series, Malec had Johnson explain the nine months they were together. Malec alleged physical abuse during their time together, specifically hiding the bruises she said were left from attacks in May 2021 to January 2022.
The first video was released on April 4, while the second one was released on April 9. Somewhere in between, Johnson was formally charged with domestic assault on April 6. He has since pleaded guilty and is in custody. As noted by NBC News, the court records confirmed that Johnson was ordered not to communicate with Malec or open TikTok, YouTube, or Facebook under his name.
On May 7, Malec seemed to signal closure to the public saga by posting a TikTok of her lip-synching to Kanye West’s “Jail” with “I WON” on the screen to highlight her achievement. The video went viral, receiving over 102 million views and thousands of supportive comments, including one from singer Kesha, who has addressed her abuse allegations in the past. “I’m so proud of you,” Keisha wrote. “ A win for one is a win for all of us.”
Things went a step further when content creator Markos Bitaskakis, aka Bee Better, created a video called “Investigating James Charles” on April 29. The footage included Zack Sellers, Johnson’s former friend, claiming James Charles had a sexual relationship with Johnson and supported him after the breakup, all of which was stated with little evidence. The video contained a disclaimer to stress that the Interviewee’s views were not facts.
Social media users quickly began to call for James Charles to respond, given the attention he has drawn due to his recent controversies. Charles took a week to respond and posted a video denying any romantic relationship with Evan Johnson. He said he had a “brief friendship,” and went on to say, “I do not support Johnson in any way, shape or form.” He subsequently claimed that Johnson used him and that he chose to sit silently during the legal proceedings so that he would not affect the outcome.
Also stated that he intended to sue Sellers and those spreading false claims; he accused them of taking advantage of Malec’s story for their benefit. Charles also took issue with Sellers, stating he raised money through live streams and broadcast reports. Andrew Sellers has pretty much disappeared from the internet since, and it’s not clear if Charles has officially put the pieces in order to suit Andrew.
