Charli D'Amelio might not be able to dance her way out of this one.
On Monday, Nov. 16, the debut episode of her family's new video series Dinner With The D'Amelios was released and featured popular YouTuber James Charles as its first guest. However, it appears viewers were more focused on Charli and her sister Dixie D'Amelio's behavior more than anything else.
After private chef Aaron May served a giant plate of paella, Dixie looked repulsed by one of the ingredients, a snail. She tasted it then turned around and gagged. "Don't be so dramatic," her dad Marc D'Amelio said, leading James to ask, "Is she being real?" Dixie then proceeded to leave the room and throw up as mom Heidi D'Amelio remarked, "Classic Dixie." Meanwhile, 16-year-old Charli asked, "Do we have any Dino Nuggets?"
After Dixie returned to the table, she explained that the dish was "good, but then there was a salty part on it that was not good," adding, "it tastes like chicken, and then I tried the salty part and everything came up." Turning to chef Aaron, she said, "You have a child, what do you, like, think is going to happen?"
Also during the dinner, Charli, the most-followed person on TikTok, with 98.8 million fans—complained about not reaching the milestone 100 million yet. "Ugh, I wish I had, like, more time because imagine if I hit 100 mil a year after hitting a mil," Charli said, to which James replied, "Was the 95 not enough for you?"
She answered, "Well, I was just like saying like, even numbers."
Since its release, the video has sparked backlash from viewers. "James has such good manners," wrote on fan in the comments. "I feel bad for him that he had to see Dixie and Charli's disgusting and disrespectful behavior." Added another, "That is so rude and the chef probably felt so uncomfortable."
Meanwhile, others applauded James' manners. "Alright cancel culture, you know what to do," chimed in one user, "but don't touch James because he was actually POLITE."
As it turns out, according to Buzzfeed News, Charli has since lost at least 500,000 followers and received private hate messages. She responded to the backlash in an emotional Instagram Live on Thursday, Nov. 19, calling it "one, huge misunderstanding."
"Seeing how people reacted to this, I don't even know if I want to do this anymore," she said, breaking down in tears. "This is messed up stuff that people are saying. Like people telling me to hang myself. People just blatantly disrespecting the fact that I'm still a human being is not okay at all.
"We should have done better on our part with the editing to make you guys know that it was a joke and that's on me," Charli continued. "I take full responsibility for that."
She also specifically addressed the backlash over her comment over her growing fanbase. "When I had said about the followers things, I genuinely just thought it would be so cool to hit a huge, huge milestone a year after hitting another milestone," she said. "I never meant for you guys to make it seem like you were numbers or did not mean anything."
While it's unclear if Dixie has also seen such a hit in followers, she did respond to the backlash on Wednesday, Nov. 18. The TikTok star, who is followed by more than 43 million people, revealed that she also received private hate messages.
"So my family and I have been working with Chef Aaron May for a couple months now, working on content for our channel, working on content for his channel, and made an amazing friendship," Dixie said in a TikTok video. "I'm so grateful for every single person that follows me, every single person I care about, every single person I work with, every single person who works with me because I'm just so grateful for all the opportunities I've had, so I would never in any way want to be taken as disrespectful, especially from an out-of-context 15-second clip."
@dixiedamelio -video...anyways, not posting this for any other reason than to share the truth of something that was ridiculously blown out of proportion...
? original sound - Dixie D’Amelio
"So basically, my team knows I throw up a lot," she continued. "I throw up at the smell, the thought or the taste 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.'"
Dixie said footage of May and her team trying to convince her to taste snail was cut from the video. "I love Chef and I would never disrespect him in any way," she said. "And maybe don't judge someone's personality over a 15-second video."