James Charles Details His 'Wake Up Call' Amidst Controversy

James Charles has returned to YouTube to address the controversy that caused him to take a months-long social media hiatus. Allegations that he was grooming impressionable underage boys (per BBC) swirled in the beginning of 2021, and in April, the social media star posted an apology video that wasn't well received by fans. Now, the makeup guru is taking another shot at setting the record straight.

"After I posted my last video, which was holding myself accountable, I felt as though it was really, really important for me to hold myself accountable and take a major, major step away and do a lot of behind-the-scenes until I was ready to come back," he stated. The apology video he referred to has since been deleted from his YouTube account. "This has been the worst, but most important wake up call of my entire life for a lot of different reasons," he added.

"I realized at the end of the day as the adult and the person with the platform, it was 1000% my responsibility to be doing my due diligence and checking into the people that I was speaking to," he continued. "And I failed to do that, and that really, really sucks." James added that while he "absolutely did not groom" anyone, he knows many people were affected by the situation and wanted to apologize.

James then assured people that he has been working on himself since his drama with Tati Wetsbrook in 2019, and detailed how he is making more changes following his latest controversy.

During his 30-minute-long YouTube video, James Charles detailed the woes of being a famous person while trying to date. "I was allowing myself to be so easily accessible to literally anybody who wanted to give me attention ... because I was so delusional in thinking that the conversation can't hurt," he explained. "But at the same time, I wasn't realizing that that also increases my chances of finding somebody not great that doesn't want to talk to me for the right reasons and then might lie or take advantage of me, and that is nobody's fault other than my own." 

Going forward, James says he is asking people for identification before speaking to them, and even sometimes asks guests to leave their phones at his door. "It's now clear to me more than ever that I need to be doing so much more to protect myself and my brand and my privacy and safety, most importantly, as well, and these are all things that I've learned from making mistakes," he said.  

Toward the end of his video, James revealed that he plans to let his fans have a closer look at his life. "You guys have gotten to know such a filtered and curated version of me, and there are so many sides of me that you guys don't know," he stated. "And I've been so worried and concerned about always being perfect ... that I kind of lost touch with the person that I really am, and I wanna show you guys that."