Charli D'Amelio's Most Controversial Moments

Chances are that even if you're not on TikTok, you know the name Charli D'Amelio. The Norwalk, Connecticut native rose to fame on the social media platform back in 2019. Since then, D'Amelio has basically gone from an average teenage girl who enjoyed dancing to an overnight sensation. She set records for becoming the most followed person on TikTok for a while, per Guinness World Records. Now, her TikTok boasts over 140 million followers and frequently features videos for her various sponsorship deals. She even scored a Hulu reality show for her entire family, à la the Kardashians, called "The D'Amelio Show." If that's not enough, the social media personality has also competed on Season 31 of "Dancing With the Stars" and E! News reports that she is slated to make her movie debut in a horror film.

When it comes to her and her family's sudden stardom, D'Amelio told Forbes, "We know nothing lasts forever — there's going to be ups and downs. We're just here to do as much as we can and enjoy this time." Some of those aforementioned downs seem to be the slew of controversies that have followed D'Amelio in the wake of her success. 

Despite D'Amelio only being a teenager, the dancer has already experienced the downsides of fame firsthand, from people criticizing every move to the backlash that often comes with making mistakes. But how much damage could a young social media star possibly do? We're breaking down Charli D'Amelio's most controversial moments.

One of Charli D'Amelio's biggest controversies stemmed from an episode of her family's YouTube series, "Dinner with the D'Amelios." In the episode in question, the family sat down with guest James Charles to enjoy an impressive spread prepared by their personal chef, Aaron May. However, upon learning that there were snails involved, Charli and her sister, Dixie D'Amelio, made grossed-out faces and gagging noises. Dixie proceeded to then throw up in disgust and Charli asked for dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets instead.

Both girls got a lot of backlash for their behavior, with fans believing that they acted ungrateful and rude toward their chef. According to Glamour, one person even commented, "Sorry, being a spoiled brat is not a sense of humor," while another wrote, "SRSLY. The disrespect and the lack of manners wow." They also came under fire for making Charles uncomfortable.

The whole incident left a bad taste in people's mouths and Charli reportedly lost over a million followers because of it (via Vanity Fair). The teen eventually took to her Instagram stories to post a tearful video explaining, "The fact that all of this is happening because of a misunderstanding, like, I just feel like that's not okay." It may have been blown out of proportion, since Chef May told The Hollywood Fix, "Those girls are the greatest, I love them. It was all fun and games."

Already by age 15, Charli D'Amelio was no stranger to controversy. She was often criticized for showing too much skin or dancing seductively in her TikTok videos. Via Twitter, she shared a particularly nasty comment that read, "This is how girls become w**res, she legit posts bikini pics and she is underaged." The teen wasn't afraid to clap back, though, writing, "Next time I will be sure to wear my full body snowsuit to the beach!"

Gossip blogger, Perez Hilton, apparently felt scandalized about a TikTok video of D'Amelio dancing in a bikini to "Sugar" by Brockhampton. Per J-14, he commented, "Anyone else think it's inappropriate for a 15-year-old to dance to this?" That may have bothered D'Amelio, considering that she tweeted, "I will continue to post when I feel happy and confident so if me wearing a swimsuit at the beach is a problem well sucks to suck doesn't it." This seemingly started a feud with Hilton, who got hate online for it. However, Hilton explained in a YouTube livestream that he had actually taken issue with her parents for letting their young daughter dance to a sexualized song (via J-14).

It wasn't just D'Amelio's bikinis that caused an uproar, either. Seventeen Magazine came under fire online when they promoted an article about D'Amelio by calling attention to an outfit she wore that showed off her underwear. That time, fans were upset with how the magazine sexualized her since she was just a minor.

Charli D'Amelio has been accused of stealing some of the TikTok dances that made her famous from Black content creators. In June 2021, D'Amelio was blasted on "The View" by co-host Sunny Hostin for not even giving the real creators credit. Hostin dished, "We're seeing it big-time now on TikTok with Black creators. They create these incredible dances that go viral ... and then you see white teenage women ... sort of misappropriate that content and make millions of dollars off of it. The prime example is Charli D'Amelio, who stole a lot of dance moves."

Hostin went on to also bring attention to how D'Amelio then got to appear on "The Tonight Show" to perform some of those dances, where neither she nor Jimmy Fallon attributed them to the actual creators. And this wasn't the first time D'Amelio faced that kind of backlash — according to Yahoo, she was called out for not coming up with "Renegade," the dance that launched her career in the first place. It also took some time for her to really acknowledge who did choreograph the routine. 

The New York Times, however, brought attention to the dance's real creator, Jalaiah Harmon, who told them, "I was happy when I saw my dance all over. But I wanted credit for it." NPR reports that D'Amelio also didn't initially speak up when invited to perform "Renegade” at NBA All-Star Weekend, pointing out that Harmon was only asked to join after the NBA got criticized on social media.

Charli D'Amelio's romance with fellow TikToker Chase Hudson, aka Huddy, sparked a lot of controversy after their 2020 split — among Gen Z, at least. According to E! News, despite initially ending on good terms, the pair was later hit with cheating rumors. In an attempt to shut these rumors down, Hudson tweeted (then deleted) that he had kissed Nessa Barrett, but only when they were single. Yet that just led to more drama, as D'Amelio reportedly replied, "Then you shouldn't have come to my house after without telling me..."

E! News also reports that D'Amelio continued to perpetuate the online conflict with Hudson, tweeting, "Want me to talk about how you treated me throughout our relationship or do you just want to continue to play the victim?" This seemingly resulted in Hudson getting bullied online, and D'Amelio changing her tune. Per CBS News 8, she took to Instagram Live to express her remorse, saying, "It breaks my heart to see the people I love get hate." She added, "I let my Twitter fingers get the best of me... that's not who I am."

But that wasn't the only scandal that the former couple was involved in. Hudson apparently tried to start a feud with D'Amelio and her new boyfriend, Landon Barker, in 2022. People reports that fans believed Hudson threw shade at her in his song, "All The Things I Hate About You" with the lyrics, "Stab me in the back like nothing / Never even saw this coming ... You're a showstopper / A bad liar, homie hopper, drama starter."

If the drama with Chase Hudson and Perez Hilton wasn't enough, Charli D'Amelio has apparently found herself in a lot of other headline-making feuds, alongside her sister, Dixie D'Amelio. For example, fellow TikTok queen Addison Rae was once on the receiving end of a beef, even though they were friends. Per Seventeen, in 2020, some of Rae's old TikTok activity surfaced and showed her liking mean posts about Charli. Dixie then tweeted, "The jealousy OH MY GOD." Rae quickly apologized for liking those comments, which had occurred before she met Charli, and the girls seemed to patch things up. But it certainly was enough to stir the pot of online gossip.

Another person who faced the D'Amelio sisters' wrath was TikToker Kio Cyr after he tweeted his excitement over having drama to discuss on his livestream. Dixie seemingly took issue with that and replied, "Imagine minding your own business." Cyr clapped back, basically telling Dixie that he didn't have a sister to rely on to make money off of like she did. Charli then joined the feud, saying on her podcast, "2 Chix," per Seventeen, "You might say my sister can clout-chase me, but, I mean, what have you been doing in the Sway House, boy?" Here, the Sway House is a reference to the defunct Bel Air mansion full of young influencers where Cyr previously resided (via J-14).

Charli also went head-to-head with social media personality Trisha Paytas, who criticized her after her chef controversy. Instead of taking the high road, Charli took to Instagram Live to tell her, via Elite Daily, "You have been completely rude to me multiple times. You have your own problems, please stop worrying about mine."

Charli D'Amelio's TikTok videos may have gotten the teen queen paid, but they also sometimes got her into trouble. One of those times was in March 2020. According to Paper, D'Amelio and her friend, Madi Monroe, decided to join a viral video challenge to dance like Chika Fujiwara, an anime character from "Kaguya-sama: Love Is War." Because of their dramatic movements, the cosplay community felt that the TikTokers were actually mocking them. Several cosplayers then took to D'Amelio's comments to express their disappointment, with one person reportedly writing, "We put time and effort into our cosplays, it's a coping mechanism for many of us and y'all are straight up invalidating us."

D'Amelio apparently wasn't aware that her video would hurt feelings and when the negative feedback rolled in, she made it a point to film another TikTok apologizing to the cosplay community. She explained, "I respect and love all types of content creations," adding, "I'm so sorry if you thought that I was trying to bully or bring you guys down in any way."

Although a lot of cosplayers were happy that D'Amelio apologized, some of her fans seemingly thought the whole thing was blown out of proportion. One person even tweeted, per Pop Buzz, "It didn't even have an offensive caption people are being extra." Another wrote, "I feel like nowadays people just look for [a] reason to be offended."

It appears that 2020 was full of controversies for Charli D'Amelio, which continued when she and other popular TikTokers traveled to the Bahamas during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only was travel a big no-no for everyone at that time, but D'Amelio and her pals were coming from L.A. which, according to Yahoo, had strict stay-at-home orders at that point, due to their rapid rise in cases.

Critics and fans alike decried how D'Amelio and her fellow influencers put people at risk. It also didn't go unnoticed that D'Amelio and several others on the trip were uncharacteristically quiet about the adventure on social media, making it seem like they were hiding their activities. But it became clear that D'Amelio had broken COVID-19 guidelines when she and her friends were spotted on the island by fans. The Instagram gossip account TikTokRoom apparently got access to photos of the group, but they have since been deleted.

To make matters worse, just days before her trip, D'Amelio took to Instagram Live to preach to her followers about the importance of staying at home to keep others safe. In the video, which was reposted by an anonymous user on TikTok, she dished, "If you're using this time to hang out with your friends ... please stop being so inconsiderate to others. ... You are putting other people at risk." Fans have been quick to call her out on her hypocrisy in the repost's comments, with one writing, "Says the girl that went to [the] Bahamas."

Charli D'Amelio may be a big star these days, but back in 2019, she was still an up-and-coming social media personality. That may be why many believed she overcharged fans for meet-and-greet tickets back then by pricing them at $100 a pop. According to Famous Focus, D'Amelio wasn't even performing a full dance at the event. Sure, the influencer let them take TikTok video shots with her, but it's safe to say that $100 is a lot of cash for the kids and teens who make up most of her fanbase. 

Once D'Amelio discovered that her fans weren't happy, she did try to make things right. Insider reports that she not only explained that she charged that much specifically for security to keep people safe, but also that she would donate the rest of the funds to charity. She even used the vlog she made about the event to inspire fans to also donate to good causes, particularly the organizations Carnival for a Cause and Breathe for ALS.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the only event where D'Amelio's fans felt they didn't get their money's worth. Dexerto reported in 2020 that several fans were upset when they paid for tickets to connect with her over Zoom but were unable to join the webinar, which was intended to promote D'Amelio's book, "Essentially Charli." While technical errors aren't necessarily D'Amelio's fault, a lot of people complained about how her team handled the event.

Perhaps one of the more ridiculous controversies that Charli D'Amelio has faced was when she got hate from fans who thought she cheated at a trivia game for charity. According to Distractify, the "Dancing With the Stars" competitor and her sister, Dixie D'Amelio, had taken part in YouTube personality Mr. Beast's Creator Games competition. In the event, they competed against 24 other influencers at trivia for a $300,000 prize to donate to charity. While that sounds like a fun way to raise money for a good cause, some people apparently got angry when the D'Amelio sisters received help on the questions from their parents.

The D'Amelio sisters went on to win the game, which seemingly sent a lot of people into an uproar over the perception of an unfair advantage. As Distractify reports, one person commented, "Charli we all saw u cheat. Why did u guys have your phones and we can see u looking at something behind the camera." It apparently got so bad that Mr. Beast himself stepped in, tweeting, "I see some people mad that I let multiple people compete on a single team in the trivia tournament! Honestly, the tournament was just for fun and to bring the community together."