In late November, Charli and her family released a YouTube video in which they ate dinner together and talked with Charles, their close friend and fellow internet star.
People have since taken issue with various clips from the video, in which Charli and her sister Dixie complain about gourmet food made for them by a private chef. Some were also upset by Charli saying she wishes she could reach 100 million followers instead of 95 million followers on TikTok in the coming weeks.
In response to the backlash, Charles wrote on Twitter: "this charli situation is NOT sitting right with me... 100M followers in one year & y'all expect her to know how to be a perfect role model? death threats because she's a picky eater & made a joke about a milestone? 30+ year olds dragging someone half their age? feels familiar."
When fellow internet star Trisha Paytas joined in on the criticism, and claimed Charles' relationship with Charli is "predatory," Charles replied in a now-deleted video: "I didn't want to respond to this because I didn't want to give Trisha the attention that she's clearly craving, however, I have now been accused of being a child groomer and this is not an accusation that I'm going to take lightly."
"To insinuate that the relationship between Charli and I is anything other than just a friendship is absolutely disgusting," he said. "I don't need Charli and Charli does not need me. I became friends with the D'Amelio family as a whole very, very early on because this was all very, very new to them and I wanted to be a friend and a mentor in any way that I possibly could. And Charli and I, despite not being the same age, had one thing in common, which is coming into the spotlight at a very, very young age."
He continued: "This is something that Trisha has never experienced because the only reason she is in the spotlight is because she has said racist things, she has said the N-word, she's done blackface, she offended the trans community, she offended the DID community, she said Hitler wasn't that bad of a guy, voted for Trump, and has started a fight with about every single other creator on this platform."
"You are in no position to be talking about me and my career so I highly recommend that you stop starting fights with people that are half your age, pack it up, and work on holding yourself and your best friends around you, because they and you are the problem," Charles said.