Looks like Charli DāAmelio was dancing too close to the sun. The 16-year-old TikTok star has lost over 1 million followers in the past several hours following backlash to a YouTube video. She responded to the hate in a tearful Instagram Live Thursday morning, explaining the āmisunderstanding.ā It all started after Charli and her family (sister Dixie, mom Heidi, and dad Marc) continued to expand on Charliās TikTok fame with a family YouTube channel. This week, they kicked off a new āDinner With the DāAmeliosā series where they invite over a āmystery guest.ā First up is none other than James Charles. The food was prepared in-house by YouTuber and chef Aaron May, who has been working as a private chef for the DāAmelios (you know, when theyāre not at BOA Steakhouse). The video generated a wave of backlash simply because the DāAmelio sisters do not know how to act.
For starters, Charli made faces behind the chefās back as he described the menu, a plant-based paella and a classic Valencia paella with shrimp, chicken, and ā¦ snails. During the meal, Dixie picked up a snail with her fingers, made a disgusted face, and interrupted James Charles to ask, āWhat is it?ā (Charles, by the way, was a surprisingly stellar dinner guest, carrying the conversation and keeping it from getting too awkward.) After the chef says snails bring āgood luck and good fortune,ā Dixie tries it, gags, and then runs outside to throw up. Meanwhile, Charli was snacking on bread and asking, āDo we have any dino nuggets?ā When Dixie came back, she confronted chef May about the snails. āYou have a child,ā she said. āLike, what do you think is gonna happen?ā We get it, Dixie, sometimes you donāt wanna be happy, but during a fancy private meal thatās being filmed for the very permanent internet? Later in the video, as the DāAmelios discuss their triumphs from the year, Charli complains that she wonāt hit 100 million followers on TikTok on the anniversary of hitting 1 million. āUgh, I wish I had more time,ā she sighed. āBecause imagine if I hit 100 mil a year after hitting a mil.ā James Charles was unimpressed, joking, āWas the 95 [million] not enough for you?ā
Over the next two days, Charli was inching closer to 100 million until fans started to unfollow in response to the video. The comments are overwhelmingly negative, calling the sisters āungratefulā and āsnobby.ā By Thursday morning, Charliās follower count had dropped by more than half a million. Charli hasnāt responded, but Dixie shared āthe truth of something that was ridiculously blown out of proportionā on TikTok, basically saying the chef, whom her family has been friends with for āa couple of months,ā knew she would have a bad reaction to the snail. On Wednesday, chef May told Hollywood Fix, he had no hard feelings whatsoever.
Charli went on Instagram Live Thursday morning to address the situation and the hate sheās received as a response to what she calls a āmisunderstanding.ā She explained that her team, including chef May, are ālike familyā and they ālike to pull surprisesā on the sisters, in this case, making them eat snails. They also know sheās a āpicky eater,ā which is why she made the ādino nuggetsā joke, she clarified. While talking about the āmessed upā messages and death threats sheās received, Charli began to cry. āPeople just, like, blatantly disrespecting the fact that Iām still a human being is not okay at all,ā she said, wiping away tears and adding, āYou can hate on me for whatever Iāve done, but the fact that all of this is happening because of a misunderstanding, I just feel like thatās not okay. And if this is the community that Iām in and the community that I put myself in, I donāt know if I want to do that anymore.ā Her follower count has continued to drop, now losing over 1 million. She added that part of her excitement for 100 million followers was because of a surprise she has āto helpā fans. It may be a minor offense for the major backlash, but after their wildly successful year, 2020 was not going to let the DāAmelios off that easily.
This post has been updated throughout.