- Swedish artist Zara Larsson apologized to beauty YouTuber James Charles in a tweet.
- Larsson previously claimed that Charles tried to proposition her boyfriend.
- The claim added to the recent controversial narrative around Charles’ interactions with straight men.
- In a video posted Saturday, Charles called Larson “hypocritical,” noting that she met her boyfriend through an unsolicited Twitter note that included shirtless photos of him.
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Swedish artist Zara Larsson apologized to beauty YouTuber James Charles early Sunday morning in a statement posted to Twitter, hours after Charles posted a video responding to criticism he had received in what has become an all-out war in the beauty YouTube world.
Larsson wrote, tagging Charles, “Ive been thinking about writing something eirlier [sic] and I’m sorry I didn’t. I’m sorry for the heavy anxiety you must’ve been going through these past weeks.”
Previously, after Charles’ former mentor and friend Tati Westbrook made a video calling him out for what she alleged was predatory sexual behavior against straight men, Larsson joined the digital mob and tweeted, “I’m cackling cause he hit up my boyfriend in the dms several times knowing damn well he’s straight,” before later clarifying that Charles only messaged him once and commented on several of his photos. The tweet added to the “predatory” behavior narrative that several influencers including Jeffree Star were attempting put on Charles without providing much evidence beyond allegations made in tweets and YouTube videos.
Read more: How beauty YouTubers James Charles and Tati Westbrook’s relationship crumbled over a single weekend
In a video responding to the controversy Saturday, Charles provided "receipts" that included screenshots of conversations and video clips that he claimed exonerated him from the accusations, and proved that there had been consent involved in many of the interactions referenced by Westbrook and others.
In the same video, Charles also called out Larsson for being "hypocritical," noting that she initially propositioned her now-boyfriend in a public tweet that included shirtless photos. "Why is it okay for Zara Larsson, a woman with a public platform, to tweet these photos of a shirtless man and [say what she did], but for me as a gay man, to DM the same person in private with a simple comment, is predatory?" Charles asked. "These stereotypes around gay men have been and continue to be very, very harmful to the community and have historically been used to vilify gay men in society."
In her apology, Larsson directly addressed what Charles called hypocrisy, saying, "Of course you're allowed to flirt with people online, like I did, and to call someone beautiful in the comments is only nice! No harm done. I do think it's disrespectful though to try it with someone who is taken and I have a hard time believing you didn't know that we were in a relationship since he posts about me."
Larsson went on to explain that her original criticism was grounded in the idea straight men "will never give consent" when pursued by gay men. "You have for example previously tweeted saying that straight men will be the death of you etc which is concerning considering the fact that they will never give consent, since they don't play for team D."
Charles has openly talked about his attraction to "straight guys," which became the focus of the recent controversy around him, with Westbrook claiming his interest crossed over into unwanted harassment. Charles called this "defamation" in his most recent video.
