Sophie Lebourgeois | A&E Editor
May 23, 2025
One of the biggest Tik Tok “dramas” currently taking over regards James Charles’ supposed involvement in a very serious case of domestic abuse. A month prior to her breakup with her boyfriend Evan Johnson, Kayla Malec, a TikTok influencer and personality, bravely came out with the truth about her nine month long abusive relationship. In a two part series that she titled “He doesn’t love you”, Malec told her tragic story, complete with video and text evidence of the horrific verbal and physical abuse she endured. Malec was sure to be as accurate as possible, and in the span of her almost four hour story, she gave a very precise timeline in which she backed with photographic evidence.
After the release of this video, the internet was horrified to discover what Malec had been dealing with behind closed doors. However, she was very sure to clarify that she told her story for the purpose of inspiring women in similar situations to be brave enough to leave. “If he can hit you, he will kill you,” she said in her video, and with a trembling voice, continued to express how if she hadn’t gotten out of that relationship, she believes she would have died. The internet was appalled by Johnson’s actions and words. They called him a monster, and many even encouraged Malec to take legal action and get him put in jail.
Fast forwarding about a month or two, at the beginning of May, Malec did begin to take legal action against her ex-boyfriend. And on May 7th, after attending a court case, Evan Johnson was sentenced to 1.5 years in jail on account of domestic abuse and several other minor offenses. The entire Internet was posting about how proud they were of Malec for being so strong, especially at 19 years old. Junior Emmi Franklin said she “was following Kayla’s story from the start, so when [she] saw that she had won, [she] was very happy.” This seems to be true for all the Internet, as everyone posted their congratulation of her bravery.
However, the Internet had also begun spinning James Charles into this whole mess, accusing him of relations with Evan Johnson prior to Malec and his relationship. Consequently, just one hour after winning her court case, instead of celebrating her, Charles posted a ten minute long Youtube video attempting to clear his name.
Although some of the allegations against him were bizarre, Malec ended up speaking about Charles about a week later. Once her thirty minute long explanation came out, it was very much confirmed that Charles did have a rather odd relationship with Evan Johnson. “I was shocked,” said junior Eden Severson. “I didn’t actually think that what people were saying about James Charles was real, I kind of thought it was a joke.”
To sum it up, Charles had basically offered Johnson a place to stay at his home in LA after he and Malec had broken up. Not only was this wrong, considering that Malec had told Charles how Johnson had done “the worst possible things someone can do” to her, but Charles had also expressed his romantic attractions to this evil man in the past.
Once James Charles’ involvement was confirmed by Malec last week, the Internet frenzy somewhat died down. Although Charles has expressed he is taking legal action against those who are spreading the more bizarre end of the lies and conspiracy, it is without doubt that Charles has once again been attacked by cancel culture, this time for something he truly did wrong. At the end of the day, with all the drama put aside, what really matters is the fact that Malec was able to get out of the unhealthy relationship she endured for nine long months. Her bravery to speak out about what she experienced makes her nothing short of a hero, as it is a fact that the words and actions of her’s against her former lover will continue to inspire so many women to leave their abusive boyfriends, or even husbands.
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