James Charles posted a 14 minute-long apology video titled ‘Holding Myself Accountable’ to his YouTube channel on April 1. In the video, Charles addresses several allegations against him – including sending inappropriate messages to minors on social media.
WHO COULD’VE SEEN THAT COMING: James Charles exposed for allegedly messaging 15-year-old. When James notices that boy shared one of their messages on his story, James snaps, accuses the boy of lying about his age, then blocks him. Boy alleges he never lied about his age. pic.twitter.com/VvtIlHmeE7
— Def Noodles (@defnoodles) March 30, 2021
After weeks of silence, Charles owns up to the accusations and admits that his behavior was “reckless” and that his conversations with underage users should have “never happened”:
“Today’s video is going to be from the heart, and I’m going to focus on what happened, the conclusions that I’ve come to and – most importantly – holding myself accountable for my own actions. I owe a massive apology to anybody that I’ve hurt or anybody that I’ve made uncomfortable with my actions. And I also want to say I’m sorry to my friends, family and fans that have to watch another one of these videos because you shouldn’t have to and this is really, really embarrassing”.
Charles also revealed that he was unaware that the people he DM’d were 16 – and immediately blocked them once he discovered they were underage:
“Within the past couple of weeks, two different people – both under the age of 18 – have recently come forward and said that they had inappropriate messages from me on social media. In both of these cases, I added these people on Snapchat, asked how old they were right away, was told that they were 18, believed them and engaged in flirty conversation, and later on found out that they were actually 16. When I saw them both making videos about it and going viral, my immediate reaction, completely honestly, was to be really upset”.
Moreover – before the apology video – Charles had responded to the accusations – arguing that the victims had “ulterior motives” for sharing their stories:
— James Charles (@jamescharles) February 26, 2021
Charles also revealed that he was so “desperate” to have a relationship – that he blindly trusted the boys when they said they were over 18 and had not paid attention to any red flags.
“The idea of actually being in a relationship became so important to me that I was willing to trust too quickly, miss out on red flags, and most importantly not take the precautionary measures that really anybody, but especially somebody with a public platform, should be taking before talking to anybody. As time progressed, my desire for a relationship never really went away, and I slowly started ignoring red flags again, and also ignoring my friends and the important people around me that warned me that I was going to get hurt. To them, I also feel like I owe an apology because I should have listened and I feel like if I did, we probably wouldn’t be here today”.
To close the video, Charles promised his fans that he would aim to be a better person and that he was embarrassed by his actions. Despite this, Charles has lost over 100K YouTube subscribers since the allegations started and has also been removed as the Season 2 Host for the YouTube Originals series Instant Influencer.
What do you think about Charles’ apology?