TikTok star Charli D’Amelio tearfully responds to backlash over personal chef video: ‘I’m still a person’
During an Instagram Live the TikTok star broke down as she attempted to clarify her actions
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Charli D’Amelio is speaking out after she and her sister Dixie D’Amelio were accused of mistreating their personal chef Aaron May.
Recently, the TikTok stars posted a video on YouTube on their family channel where they’re seen sitting down with their parents Marc D’Amelio and Heidi D’Amelio, as well as their friend, beauty YouTuber James Charles for a dinner prepared by the Food Network star.
While May presented the family with a multicourse meal, including seafood paella, Charli, 16, was seen by angry viewers making faces as he described the meal. She then later asked for “dino nuggets.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Later in the video, Dixie, 19, spotted a snail on her plate. As May explained the purpose of the ingredient in the meal, she starts gagging before running off to throw up.
TIKTOK STAR CHARLI D’AMELIO DOESN’T ORDER HER DUNKIN’ DRINK BY NAME, HERE’S WHY
“It brings you good luck and good fortune to eat it,” May tried to explain.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Audiences immediately slammed the sisters in the video’s comments section, calling them “disrespectful” and “rude” towards May.
During an Instagram Live on Thursday, D’Amelio broke down in tears as she attempted to clarify their actions.
“All of this is happening because [of] a misunderstanding,” she tearfully explained, as quoted by Us Weekly.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}TIKTOK STAR CHARLI D'AMELIO GETS DUNKIN' DRINK NAMED AFTER HER
“I just feel like that’s not OK, and if this is the community that I’m in and the community that I put myself in, I don’t know if I wanna do that anymore,” the social media influencer continued. “I know that this is gonna be a huge joke to whoever sees it, but like, at the end of the day, just, like, be nice. I feel like it’s not that hard, and you can say whatever.”
According to the outlet, D’Amelio claimed she has received death threats in response to the controversial video.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Charli D'Amelio (L) and Dixie D'Amelio arrive at iHeartRadio's Z100 Jingle Ball 2019 at Madison Square Garden on December 13, 2019, in New York City. (Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage/Getty)
“You can say I’m disrespectful, you can say I don’t have basic human decency, but at the end of the day, I’m still a person,” she said.
D’Amelio stressed that she didn’t want her followers “to think that I don’t care” about them.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The outlet noted that the duo has lost hundreds of thousands of followers since the video was released.
Dixie previously tried to defend herself on Wednesday in a TikTok video.
“My team knows I throw up a lot,” she said, as quoted by the outlet. “I throw up at the smell, the thought or the test of anything. So, when they saw the snails, they were like, ‘Oh, let’s get her and try to see if we can get a reaction out of her.’ … I love [our] chef, and I would never disrespect him in any way.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Charles, 21, also took to Twitter and defended the girls.
“This charli situation is NOT sitting right with me,” he tweeted to his 7.2 million followers. “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.”