Charli D'Amelio's Feud With Trisha Paytas Explained

It would be fair to say that Trisha Paytas has made a career out of being controversial. The YouTuber, singer, and influencer has been embroiled in plenty of public drama over the years — from claiming to be a transgender male (they now identify as non-binary), to stirring up feuds with fellow content creators like Jeffree Star, Ethan Klein, David Dobrik, and Shane Dawson. A self-professed "internet troll," Paytas once told Insider that they enjoy — nay, thrive on — being the center of public attention, whether that means finding herself with new enemies or facing the internet's wrath (or both). "I never cared about being rich or anything, still don't," Paytas told Insider. "I just have this constant need for attention. Maybe that's a bad thing, maybe not, but it's how I thrive." 

Beyond Star and Dawson, another name stands out in Paytas' long list of famous foes: TikTok star and celebrity dancer Charli D'Amelio. Back in 2020, Paytas made their true feelings about D'Amelio known when they called the young influencer "boring" on her "Frenemies" podcast with Klein (yes, the same Ethan Klein). "Unpopular opinion, she's boring," said Paytas of D'Amelio. "She's the biggest influencer right now, but like, so boring." They also questioned D'Amelio's popularity, calling D'Amelio "basic" and disagreeing when Klein pointed out that she was a good dancer. "She's young," Paytas said. "I shouldn't like be this mean but also like, what? I just don't get it." 

But that was just the start of the drama. Here's what really went down between Paytas and D'Amelio. 

Things escalated between Charli D'Amelio and Trisha Paytas when Charli landed herself in hot water for her controversial behavior in her family's YouTube show, "Dinner With the D'Amelios." The video featured Charli's family, with beauty guru James Charles as their guest, sitting down for a dinner prepared by their personal chef, Aaron May. It triggered backlash after Charli and her sister Dixie appeared to gag over May's meals, with Charli at one point asking for chicken nuggets in front of the renowned chef, and Dixie running out to vomit after tasting a snail. Later on in the video, Charli lamented about not having yet reached the 100 million-mark on TikTok — a milestone that she said she'd hoped to hit within a year — prompting Charles to respond with, "Was the 95 [million] not enough for you?"

The controversy caused Charli to instead lose 1 million followers on her TikTok account, and what's more, earn the ire of critics including Paytas, who called out the D'Amelio sisters for being disrespectful and showing what they described was "unbecoming" behavior. "They should be called out when they need to be humbled a little. Because you see this happening all the time," said Paytas, in a video posted to TikTok. "People get really famous, a lot of followers really quickly. They think they're entitled to a 100 mil and they complain that they have 95 million followers and they have a personal chef. And it's just unbecoming." The outspoken YouTuber then added, "This kind of attitude won't get you far. Period."

It didn't take long before Trisha Paytas' remarks reached Charli D'Amelio, who, as expected, did not take to their words lightly. In an Instagram Live, D'Amelio pushed back and accused Paytas of being "completely rude" to her "multiple times," before telling the YouTuber to mind their own business and — in the words of Will Smith — keep her name out of their mouth. "You have your own problems, please stop worrying about mine," D'Amelio said (via PopBuzz). "Please stop talking about me. You're not a very nice person. Sorry." 

Paytas, of course, later responded: "She's literally the most followed person on social media. That's what she signed up for," they said. "And I haven't been rude. I've given constructive criticism as far as this situation goes." The "Freaky" singer also stressed that they don't blame D'Amelio for what happened and that they actually rather "feel" for her. "I know she's a minor. It's the people around her feeding this," added Paytas.

However, in 2022, Paytas said they ultimately regret a lot of the things they had said about D'Amelio in the past. "Absolutely. I'm so embarrassed of the person I was," they said during a social media Q&A with their fans (via Kiss), adding that they had felt "so much guilt" for their past actions and had beat themselves up over it. "I really had to forgive myself truly and let that go, and not think about it because it would really eat me alive," said Paytas. D'Amelio has yet to respond to their statement.