In mid-August 2024, James Charles found himself trending on X for all the wrong reasons once again, when an NSFW five-minute video leaked on X and other social media apps of a man resembling the controversial makeup and beauty influencer on a video call with another man.
The explicit footage was reportedly taken on the Monkey app, a service allowing people from all over the world to video chat anonymously. At this writing, James had not confirmed it was him in the video. Nor was there any information about the identity — or age — of the person in the footage. Still, the Charles footage spread quickly on social media, causing James Charles to trend, and a torrent of meme responses providing some idea of what the recording showed.
Several people referenced the leak, commenting on an unrelated Charles Instagram post. “everybody making jokes about the leaks but do you guys even stop for a second to think about what this may do to him… i can never imagine how i would feel if my nood gets leaked for thousands of people to see,” one comment said, supporting the influencer.
Charles’ 2021 grooming allegations
The 2024 explicit video call leak came just about three years after James Charles was accused of grooming underage males on social media, just one of many scandals that have plagued Charles throughout his career. As a result, Charles lost some endorsement deals, and his YouTube channel was temporarily demonetized.
Charles claimed he didn’t know how old the boys were. “I trusted the information that was given to me rather than the information I could have and should have gotten myself,” Charles said in an apology video after screenshots and statements were shared alleging the influencer had inappropriate sexual communication with minors.
Charles added, “In both of these situations, doing research into these people’s public social-media profiles would’ve revealed their true ages, and therefore these conversations would have never happened in the first place. But I didn’t do the research, and that is what is so embarrassing. To the guys involved in the situation, I want to say I’m sorry.”