Tati Westbrook claims Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star "coerced and manipulated" her in explosive new video

30 June 2020, 19:48

Shane Dawson apologises for making racist YouTube videos

By Woodrow Whyte

Tati reveals she patched things up with James Charles and is setting the record straight.

Tati Westbrook has uploaded an explosive video titled "Breaking My Silence..." in which she apologises to James Charles for her videos about him last year, and accuses Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star of 'manipulating' her into uploading her original video in 2019. (June 30)

Reading from a script overseen by lawyers, Tati outlines her friendship history with James, Shane and Jeffree, and paints a picture of Jeffree and Shane blackmailing her and other influencers in the beauty industry, and specifically whipping up drama between herself and James. She claims this was done out of jealousy towards James Charles success at the time, and to wipe out the competition for their (at-the-time) forthcoming Conspiracy palette collaboration.

Tati says at one point: "I have lost over a year of my life terrified of social media, and terrified of speaking up against the people who used, coerced and manipulated me into uploading my video last year."

READ MORE: YouTube has demonetized Shane Dawson's YouTube channels

In the video, Tati reveals she patched things up with James Charles in private in December 2019, following the end of the Jeffree/Shane beauty series, and they shared DMs and messages they both received to understand what actually happened.

Tati then makes a lengthy, tearful apology to James, saying that Shane and Jeffree put a wedge between her friendship with James.

According to Tati, James offered to be in this video but Tati insisted she did it alone. "It's important for you to know that I love James Charles."

BREAKING MY SILENCE ...

Providing more context to her involvement with Shane and Jeffree, Tati claims that Jeffree and Shane wanted Tati to be involved in their Conspiracy palette series in March 2019 and reached out to her. This was approximately around the time that Tati had fallen out with James over his involvement with one of her main competitors.

According to Tati, she visited Shane's house, where Tati claims Shane said to her about James: "James Charles is a monster with many victims" and that "he was hurting minors". She also claims Shane was planning on interviewing James' alleged victims and had evidence.

The night before Tati recorded her video about James in 2019, she claims Jeffree sent her an audio file from one of the alleged "victims" and told her to "listen to the pain in their voice". Tati said that it was only a clip, and it wasn't enough to contact the authorities, "but it was enough to scare me".

Then, Tati makes the claim Shane offered to help edit her now infamous takedown video of James, and also offered to help make the asset and title it. Shane denied he has any involvement in the making of the video in a note posted to social media two weeks ago.

The day that Tati released her video, she says Shane wanted to come over to her home to record what was happening but she declined. "After a few days on fanning the flames on Twitter, no victims appeared as they stated would happen", she continues.

Shortly after Jeffree's video response to the James/Tati drama, Tati's relationship with Jeffree and Shane dissolved, which Tati claims left her confused. Apparently fearing for her life, she put all the messages she had between herself, Shane and Jeffree on a hard drive and gave them to her lawyer believing there might be an attempt on her life.

Tati goes on to explain the effect the drama has had on her life, claiming she had to leave town in the fall when the Conspiracy series was being aired on YouTube, moved house, and delayed fertility treatment she was planning because she was in such bad health.

Tati says she is unable to show the evidence she has for her claims, on the advice of her lawyers, however: "there will soon come a day when you will be able to see this evidence and see why it is we believe Jeffree and Shane are responsible for so much of the damage that has been caused".

Tati then gives a possible motive to the drama, that Jeffree and Shane were jealous of James' success, and suggests they wanted to ruin James' career to ensure the success of their collaborative palette. And she says James isn't their only target.

No More Lies

Shane briefly appeared on Instagram Live shortly after Tati's video was uploaded (30 June). He seemed very distressed and make vague statements about Tati including " “She is a fucking…i don’t want to send any mean about anybody”, “you are so manipulative’ and “you are fake crying" before ending the live a couple minutes later.

Ryland, Shane's fiancé, has said this on Twitter: "Tati Westbrook - a master class in  manipulation. The only was to save her reputation was to side with the person she tried to ruin. Make no mistake. This 40 year old woman choose to post a video on her own accord. She riled up Shane before doing so to have one of the biggest"

As Tati said in her video, this is far from over.

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