The makeup artist is currently embroiled in a legal battle.
James Charles is being sued by his former creative director and producer.
Kelly Rocklein has taken legal action against the YouTuber and makeup artist alleging wrongful termination, discrimination, and failure to pay overtime.
Rocklein, who worked for Charles for six months in 2018, said that she was promoted from video editor to producer but that a replacement was never hired to cover her previous role. She alleged that when she took time off following an injury, she was immediately fired.
Speaking to Insider, Rocklein said she “suffered a head injury while in the presence of Mr. Dickinson (Charles) that resulted in her experiencing headaches, temporary loss of consciousness, confusion, amnesia.”
She claimed that Charles “callously accused her of not being dedicated to her job as a result of her work being delayed while she was hospitalised.” Rocklein also alleged that Charles used “the N-word” in her presence. “I personally experienced him saying that frequently,” she said.
Charles has since released a video addressing the claims, stating that he feels he is being “blackmailed.”
“I currently feel as though the situation that I was in is being taken advantage of,” he said, “and I feel as though I’m being blackmailed.”
This comes just one month after Charles shared a video entitled ‘holding myself accountable.’ Here, he admitted to messaging underage boys on social media and said he was “ashamed” of his actions.
“In both of these cases I added these people on Snapchat, asked how old they were right away, was told that they were 18, believed them, engaged in a flirty conversation and then later on found out that they were actually 16,” he said in the video.
“Upon finding out, I was immediately embarrassed and blocked both people […] I fucked up. These conversations should’ve never happened, point blank, period. There is no excuse for it. There is no ifs, ands or buts and I take full responsibility for that.”
Charles has since claimed that Rocklein has used the sexting scandal as “an attempt to pressure me into making a much, much higher settlement offer.”
“Unfortunately at this point, my only option is to pursue this to the fullest extent of the law, and my hope is one day when it does get to a courtroom in the future, justice will be served,” he said.
