James Charles Apologizes After Criticizing Spirit Airlines Worker’s Mass GoFundMe DMs

Beauty influencer James Charles, 26, received a direct message on TikTok from a woman who said she lost her job at Spirit Airlines after the budget carrier abruptly shuttered last weekend. The shutdown cost some 17,000 jobs. In a now-deleted video, Charles read the message aloud before unleashing a tirade against the sender.

“I just got a DM on here from a girl that said … ‘I’m really struggling right now because Spirit Airlines just filed for bankruptcy and I have lost my job. Here’s a GoFundMe link. Any donations help,'” Charles said in the video.

He responded that getting another job would help her more. “You know what else would help you? Getting another job. Yeah, try that,” he added. Charles noted the woman sent the same message even though she does not follow him.

“Because in the time that it took you to copy and paste the same f–k ass message to myself, who you don’t follow, by the way … you could’ve applied for a hundred other jobs,” he said. ” Charles deleted the original rant video after it drew sharp online criticism. On Saturday he posted a shirtless apology video on TikTok.

“This video was f–king stupid. It was rude, it was obnoxious, it was privileged, and most it was completely f–king unnecessary,” Charles said. He acknowledged he could have ignored the message but instead publicly shamed the woman for asking for help when she was clearly struggling.

“I feel awful because that wasn’t my intention. And I really hurt a lot of people… I’m super sorry, especially to the woman from Spirit Airlines,” Charles said in the apology. com reported the sequence of events and the content of both videos.

Spirit Airlines' abrupt closure last weekend left thousands of employees without work and prompted a wave of fundraising appeals on social media. Charles' initial response highlighted tensions that can surface when personal financial pleas reach high-profile accounts with large followings.

The influencer’s net worth of $22 million placed him in a markedly different economic position from the newly unemployed workers affected by the airline’s bankruptcy.