Screenshot/James Charles – YouTube
- James Charles returned from a three-month YouTube break with a 30-minute video.
- Charles denied recent allegations spreading around social media.
- In a previous video, Charles admitted to texting inappropriately with minors.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
In a 30-minute YouTube video published Friday, the beauty guru James Charles returned from a three-month hiatus and said he has done "a lot of work behind the scenes" to hold himself accountable.
Charles, who has 25 million subscribers, responded to criticism he received for his since-deleted video, "holding myself accountable," where he addressed allegations of grooming minors. In that video, published in April, he said that he had "reckless" conversations with two boys who Charles claimed had lied about their respective ages, saying they were adults when they weren't. He did not specify the identities of the boys.
In 2020 and 2021, several TikToks and videos were posted by people claiming to be underage boys who exchanged sexually explicit direct messages with Charles. One video was posted by a boy who said he was 14 when he says Charles sent him nude photos and attempted to solicit them in return.
Other boys showed purported screenshots of the direct messages and what they alleged were Snapchats sent by Charles with captions like, "Just take a pic dumbass," and "come pick me up for some road head."
In Friday's video, Charles said that he was told that viewers found his apology video "ingenuine" and he believed his tone overshadowed the points he sought to make.
Still, the beauty star said that during his absence, "countless fake stories" about him began to spread around social media. He said that there's one person who is "knowingly posting fake stories time and time again," though he did not specify whom he was referring to.
Charles said those stories were "completely, unequivocally, not true."
In the past three months, he said, he has reflected on the situation and realized that since he was the adult and the one with the platform, it was his responsibility to ensure the age of the people he was speaking with.
"I definitely have not been taking this lightly," he said. "This has been the worst but most important wake-up call of my entire life for a lot of different reasons, and this is by far the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me."
He apologized to "everybody close to me, my friends, my family, my fans," and said he has come to terms with the fact that this story will follow him for the rest of his career and his life. Charles said he admits it was his own fault and he must take accountability for what he did.
Going forward, Charles said that he will continue to learn and grow and that he has been asking people for forms of identification to verify their age.
Insider reached out to a representative for Charles seeking further comment but did not immediately hear back.
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