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Kayla Malec via TikTok; James Charles at the Fashion Los Angeles Awards in April 2025.
The drama between Kayla Malec, James Charles, and Evan Johnson has escalated to new heights.
The drama between Kayla Malec and James Charles came to a head this week after she won a court case against her ex-boyfriend, Evan Johnson. As Malec went to court for the first time, a wave of online discourse was kicked off in the background. Now, she's addressing those topics and concerns straightaway.
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In April, Malec came forward with allegations that her ex, Johnson, physically and emotionally abused her. This led to Charles's subsequent involvement in the case, as Malec accused Charles of forming a friendship with her ex-boyfriend even though he allegedly knew what she had experienced.
Charles uploaded a video response on May 7 and admitted to a "brief friendship." However, Charles added that he felt manipulated by Johnson and didn't know about the abuse until after seeing Malec's "he doesn't love you" videos.
@kaylamalecc IM SOBBING. FOR US. WE DID IT. WE DID IT. #fyp
On Thursday, May 15, Malec posted three 10-minute videos that included alleged screenshots of her conversations with Charles. Not only did she argue that Charles knew about the abuse before forming a friendship with Johnson, but Malec also shared additional details about their interactions.
Keep scrolling to see the nine biggest takeaways from Kayla Malec's three-part series of videos in response to James Charles.
The most significant takeaway from Malec's response was her claim that Charles knew about the abuse before she even shared her story with the public on YouTube.
According to Malec, Charles repeatedly told her that he found Johnson very attractive. In the first (of three) videos responding to Charles, Malec recalled a few instances in which Charles seemingly commented on her social media posts discussing how attractive Johnson was. Nonetheless, Malec explained that those comments didn't necessarily bother her at the time.
Malec claimed that she saw Johnson and Charles exchanging DMs while she was on vacation with her then-partner. And while she wasn't able to disclose any evidence of that, Malec did suggest that Charles and Johnson exchanged flirtatious DMs.
Malec and Johnson broke up two weeks after the aforementioned vacation. She said that Charles contacted her at the time and asked if the couple wanted to be in a promo video for his makeup brand, Painted.
In her response videos, Malec shared an alleged screenshot of a conversation she had with Charles in which she is seen telling Charles about the breakup with Johnson. Charles's response in this alleged screenshot reads, "Can I have him now?" According to Malec, she then told Charles that the reason behind their breakup was that Johnson had done "the worst things a human can do."
These alleged text messages show Charles learning about the breakup, which is when Malec told him that she was going to do a "30-part 'Who TF Did I Marry?!'" series on TikTok.
Malec alleges that Charles warned Johnson in advance that she was going to release this "30-part series" about what she experienced with him. The reason? Malec claimed that Johnson randomly brought up that video series in a phone call between them.
Sometime later, Malec alleged that she saw Johnson posting a Snapchat story that was seemingly taken in Charles' backyard. After asking Charles about it, Malec claimed that he didn't give her a direct answer.
In the videos, Malec also claimed that Charles flew Johnson to California for Coachella — highlighting that there were videos of them together, on social media, while attending the music festival. After those videos began circulating, Charles allegedly texted her and admitted that he lied about forming a friendship with Johnson.
Malec's alleged screenshot of their conversation seemingly shows Charles saying, "I lied to you and I shouldn't have, I've felt guilty for weeks, but I didn't know how to tell you and I owe you the truth. But I wanted to explain to you what happened. From my mouth."
Charles subsequently accused Johnson of manipulating him, adding that he promptly cut off Johnson from his life after watching Malec's "he doesn't love you" videos.
Malec allegedly asked Charles, "How did you get to the point for him to manipulate you? I told you he abused me the day that we broke up. Then you texted him the day I told you that, but I would rather talk to you about this tomorrow. You met him because he was my boyfriend, [you know]."
This was the last time they communicated with each other, Malec explained, saying that Charles attempted to contact her multiple times. Still, she reiterated her lack of interest in speaking to him again.
In this three-part video series, Malec declared that the most upsetting part of this experience was not being believed from the very beginning — that disclosing an allegedly abusive relationship wasn't enough to allegedly stop Charles seemingly forming a friendship with Johnson.
Malec also underscored that Charles's video addressing the situation — and trying to defend himself — didn't include any screenshot of his conversations with Johnson.
Malec also expressed that the timing of Charles's video was upsetting. According to Malec, Charles waited one hour after she posted her video about winning her court case before he posted his response. In other words, Malec expressed her belief that Charles only posted a video about the situation after he was already entangled within this drama.
On the other hand, fans pointed out that Malec also didn't mention Zack Sellers or the Bee Better interview in any of her videos despite their involvement in the overall scandal.
Watch the full three-part video response shared by Kayla Malec on her TikTok page (@kaylamalecc). The first video in the series can be seen below.
@kaylamalecc my side FINALLYY, part 1 #fyp
Moises Mendez II is a culture journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. He covers internet culture and entertainment including television, movies, music, and more. For the last two years, he was a Culture Reporter at TIME Magazine. Before that, he was a freelance journalist and his work has appeared in The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, and more. Moises holds a master's degree in Arts and Culture journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
Moises Mendez II is a culture journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. He covers internet culture and entertainment including television, movies, music, and more. For the last two years, he was a Culture Reporter at TIME Magazine. Before that, he was a freelance journalist and his work has appeared in The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, and more. Moises holds a master's degree in Arts and Culture journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
