A male model has revealed that scandal-ridden YouTuber James Charles sent him suggestive direct messages on Instagram, days after the teen was first accused of trying to ‘trick straight men into thinking they’re gay’.
Jay Alvarrez, 23 — who is best known for dating model Alexis Ren before the pair had a very public breakup in 2016 — revealed on Tuesday that he received a flirtatious message from James, 19, in February, despite describing himself as ‘straight as could be’.
On his Instagram Stories, Jay shared a screengrab of the conversation he had with the beauty YouTuber just a few months ago, while captioning the image, ‘People giving this kid [too] much props he got no game.’
Revealed: Model Jay Alvarrez (left) shared on Tuesday how YouTuber James Charles slid into his Instagram DM’s in February despite him being straight
Throwback: The model gained notoriety while dating model Alexis Ren from 2014 to 2016 – a relationship that earned him plenty of public attention thanks to their lavish lifestyle
Shocking: Jay revealed on Tuesday that he received a message from 19-year-old James, who told him he was ‘hot’ – despite him being very publicly straight
James messaged the model first by saying, ‘hi daddy’. The conversation then continued with Jay complimenting James’ makeup skills before asking why he was sending him direct messages.
‘lmao you’re hot,’ the YouTuber responded to the message.
It was at this point that Jay made clear to James he was not interested, despite the YouTuber’s compliments.
‘Appreciate that my guy I’m as straight as could be,’ the model responded.
Jay is never thought to have publicly suggested that he would be interested in pursuing a romance with another male, and his only very public relationship has been with a woman – Alexis.
However he is the latest in a growing number of straight men who have accused James of hitting on them even though they are openly heterosexual and/or in relationships.
These accusations were brought to light when YouTuber Tati Westbrook, 37, accused James of manipulating straight men.
The feud between Tati and James first started after Coachella when the YouTuber promoted Sugar Bear Hear products on his Instagram. Tati, who owns her own vitamin company called Halo Beauty, came after James online because of his betrayal for promoting her largest competitor.
Bitter: Jay and Alexis went through a very public and very bitter break-up that saw her size-shaming him publicly on social media
Superstar: The male model has continued to earn online fame, regularly sharing images of himself at the beach or living it up in Los Angeles
Shut down: Jay quickly shut down James’ seemingly flirtatious message, telling the YouTube star, ‘I’m straight as could be’
Earlier on Tuesday, Nikita Dragun, who also runs her own beauty YouTube page, defended James by showing text messages on Twitter about why he felt the need to promote the company on his Instagram.
‘Heard a situation needed some clarification,’ the transgender woman, 23, wrote on Twitter to her 700,000 followers. ‘My friend was in an emergency and texted me in the moment… unfortunately since @dragunbeauty used all of our marketing budget on the fantasy, I connected him with sugar bear. nothing shady.’
The tweet included two text message threads: One of which from James begging Nikita to connect him with Sugar Bear Hair because he was being ‘attacked in VIP’ at Coachella, and the other between Nikita and the company.
The reasoning behind these messages was that apparently James only decided to work with Sugar Bear Hair on a whim because he needed a favor from the company.
James claims he was in the VIP section of Coachella one evening and was getting attacked by other attendees, so he felt his only option was to take a deal from Sugar Bear Hair in exchange for an artist pass.
But then trouble started for the YouTuber after he shared his sponsored post for the company, which directly competes against Tati and her Halo Beauty products.
On the defense: Nikita Dragun, 23, defended James Charles, 19, on Twitter by sharing text messages about his Coachella incident that put him in hot water
Here for you: The text messages shared by the transgender YouTuber was to show people that James only last minute decided to work with Sugar Bear Hair at Coachella
Receipts: In the messages, James reached out to Nikita to get him in contact with the company. She did and was able to help him get an artist pass in exchange for a sponsored post
Tati decided to share her frustrations first on Instagram about the decision by James before also posting a scathing 43-minute long video detailing why her friendship was over with the influencer.
There has been a lot of back and forth since from people deciding if they believe James when he says it was a last-minute sponsored post. Tati thinks her former friend just sold out for the money.
All the drama enticed Nikita to join the conversation by sharing with fans how it was, according to her text messages, a last-minute post.
Fans appeared unimpressed by the new receipts, though, as some accused the influencer of faking them to help out her friend.
But she claims the texts are all true, writing: ‘u really think i have the time to fake texts? the only thing i edit is my waist on facetune sis. they have the screen recording of the messages.’
Other people also expressed how Nikita was missing the point of the original controversy, saying how James’ behavior was wrong for multiple reasons.
‘So, @jamescharles knowingly asked you to get him in touch with Tati’s main competitor without even batting an eye? Wow, thanks for clarifying,’ one angered fan wrote in response.
Support: People accused Nikita of faking the messages, but she claims the story James told about the entire situation was true
Not helpful: Even with the information, some fans said how James acted was shady against Tati Westbrook, his former friend, because Sugar Bear Hair is her competitor
Picking sides: Fans said they were still on Tati’s side about the entire situation. She bashed James last week for being disloyal by taking the sponsorship
Not happy: The drama only continues for James, as more people weigh in on the situation
Sparring: Drama started last week after Tati, 37, released a scathing video about James and their friendship
The feud began when James promoted Sugar Bear Hair vitamins — a competitor of Tati’s own supplement brand. Tati also accused James of manipulating straight men
Another commented: ‘He had previously stated that he wouldn’t promote Tati’s supplements to his followers because they’re too young. Hypocrite. he obviously has no loyalty to his friend in a very lucrative business. Disloyal. He should’ve been prepared with passes & his own security. Unprepared.’
But the Sugar Bear Hair controversy at Coachella was only the tip of the problems Tati mentioned she had with James.
In her video, Tati not only slammed James for being disloyal but claimed he would make sexually explicit comments about men he knew to be straight. She also accused him of manipulating straight men into sexual relationships.
And she isn’t the only one either: After her video was posted, singer Zara Larsson commented to share her own experience, saying James hit on her boyfriend Brian H. Whittaker.
‘I’m cackling cause he hit up my boyfriend in the dms several times knowing damn well he’s straight,’ she wrote.
Later, she amended the comment: ‘I feel like deleting this cause I checked and it wasn’t several times, only one dm and some comments under pictures.’
Singer Olivia O’Brien also tweeted in response to what Zara said about James flirting with her boyfriend, tweeting: ‘Same, sister. S***’s wild.’
Singer Zara Larsson also said James ‘hit up my boyfriend in the dms several times knowing damn well he’s straight’ (Zara pictured with boyfriend)
Heartbroken: Tati was frustrated by James’ promo posts and posted about feeling ‘betrayed’ shortly after. She also said James had other behavior problems
Damage control: In response to Tati’s 43-minute video, James posted an eight-minute long apology video. But he has since lost three million subscribers
Detailed accounts of when James was overly sexual to men were mentioned in Tati’s video, including one account of when the YouTuber attended her birthday dinner earlier this year.
‘He said some things, telling me about a situation that happened in Seattle at my birthday, and it literally made me want to vomit,’ she said.
‘Oh my god, you tried to trick a straight man into thinking he’s gay, yet again, and somehow you’re the victim.
‘You know, it’s really disgusting to manipulate someone’s sexuality, especially when they are still emerging into adulthood and don’t quite have everything figured out.
‘You are using your fame, your power, your money to play with people’s emotions,’ she said. ‘You’re threatening to ruin them, you’re threatening to embarrass them, and you’re doing that to have them behave sexually in your favor, even if they’re straight.
‘And that’s not OK, that behavior is not OK, whether you’re a woman, a man, gay, straight, bi, whatever sexual orientation you are, that is your call. It is not someone else’s to take, it is not someone else’s to play with… and how dare you laugh about it.
Drama queens: Some former fans are destroying their James Charles palettes following his public controversy, with at least one burning the makeup in the trash
Dumping it out: Another tossed her palette her cat’s littler box
His or hers: James and Tati’s feud has had many people taking sides — with most going for Team Tati
That’ll do it: One fan just put tape across the front with the word ‘cancelled’
‘Cracking someone’s sexuality is a not an escape room,’ she said.
The video has since been viewed more than 39 million times and led to viewers unsubscribing from James’ YouTube channel.
At the start of the controversy, James had 16.57 million YouTube subscribers. But as of 3:00 EST Tuesday afternoon, he is down to just 13.51 — a three million follower drop, with it still steadily declining.
Tati, meanwhile, has seen her popularity grow since releasing her video against James. She has gained four million followers, boosting her subscriber account to 9.8 million.
Trouble for James is not just happening on his YouTube channel, though. Upset fans also took to Twitter to show themselves damaging their James Charles eye shadow palette.
It remains unclear how this controversy will end for James, as he has only released one eight-minute video to respond to Tati since it first started. He is anticipated to lose more subscribers in the coming days.