James Charles Addresses Allegations of Inappropriately Messaging Minors: 'I'm Ashamed & Embarrassed'

James Charles is speaking out.

The 21-year-old YouTuber posted a video called “holding myself accountable” on Thursday (April 1).

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“In case anybody isn’t aware of what’s going on, within the past couple of weeks two different people both under the age of 18 have recently come forward saying that they had inappropriate messages with me on social media,” he said.

He went on to say that he began chatting with two people, both of whom he added on SnapChat. He says he was told and believed them to be 18, until he later found out they were actually 16.

Here’s what he said…

“Upon finding out I was immediately embarrassed and blocked both people. Later on when I saw them making videos about it and those videos going viral, my immediate reaction completely honestly was to be really, really upset. I wanted to get on camera and film another ‘no more lies’ video where I gather all my receipts and all my screenshots and try to tell my side of the story and then just move on from the situation,” he continued.

He went on to say that after self-reflection, he realized that didn’t matter.

“I needed to take accountability for my actions and most importantly apologize to the people that were affected by them. These conversations should have never happened point-blank period. There’s no excuse for it…I trusted the information that was given to me rather than the information I could have and should have gotten myself,” he continued.

“As an adult it is my job and my responsibility to verify who I’m talking to and therefore there is no one to blame for this other than myself,” he said.

He then issued an apology to the boys.

“To the guys involved with this situation, I want to say I’m sorry: I’m sorry that I added you, I’m sorry that I flirted with you, I’m really sorry if I ever made you uncomfortable. It is completely unacceptable.”

“It’s really looking like I’m actively searching for younger people to be in a relationship with, and I just want to say firsthand that is absolutely not the case. My hope has always been to be in a relationship with somebody around my age or older,” James went on to clarify, saying he has not been able to make that happen.

“In 2019 my dating life became even more public than it already was when I was called out and labeled as a predator…at the time I also recognized that I definitely needed to change the way I was going about dating because clearly something was not working,” he said.

“I slowly started ignoring red flags again and also ignoring my friends and the important people around me that warned me that I was going to get hurt,” he continued.

“I think that my lack of experience when it came to dating growing up and then all of a sudden having a lot of attention from different types of men – some for good reasons and some for bad reasons – really affected me in ways that I didn’t quite understand.”

“I should have been more careful in every single way…I didn’t do the proper research and for that I’m once again ashamed and embarrassed.”

Here’s what he said when an allegation from a 16-year-old went viral in February.

Watch what else James Charles said…