Amber Vargas Rejects James Charles' Private Apology; Gypsy Rose Blanchard Cuts a Check to the Spirit Airlines Worker He Mocked
The full text of Charles' private message has been made public. Vargas declined it. Then a true-crime celebrity with no prior involvement sent money directly to her GoFundMe.
On May 15, Amber Lendof Vargas — the former Spirit Airlines employee whose GoFundMe request prompted a public TikTok rant from James Charles — publicly rejected a private apology Charles sent her, according to reporting by MSN and Out Magazine. The same day, Gypsy Rose Blanchard donated to Vargas' GoFundMe, according to TMZ and Just Jared, extending the radius of the story well beyond its origin point.
The private apology
The Tab published what it described as the full text of Charles' private message to Vargas on May 15. The outlet characterized the message as a "grovelling apology," attributing the description to its own editorial read of the document. Vargas, in turn, made the contents public and stated she was declining the apology, according to MSN. Her reasoning, as attributed by multiple outlets, centered on the public nature of the original rant — Charles had called her, according to a clip documented across multiple publications, a "lazy piece of s--t" in a TikTok video that spread widely beginning around May 8. A private message, Vargas indicated, did not answer a public insult.
For the record, Charles had already issued a public apology before the private message exchange became known — that apology was documented by BuzzFeed, TMZ, and E! News as of May 9 and May 11. The private channel was a separate, subsequent communication.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard's involvement
Gypsy Rose Blanchard's donation to Vargas' GoFundMe was reported by TMZ on May 15 and corroborated by Just Jared the same day. No statement from Blanchard was quoted in either report beyond the act of the donation itself. A Reddit thread on r/InternetDrama, submitted by user u/kleverrboy on May 15, noted that Blanchard's entry into the story had made an already sprawling controversy "somehow" larger.
The Central Trend, a student publication, published a piece on May 19 citing Charles' use of the phrase "Welcome to the real world" during the original TikTok rant as a particular point of criticism, arguing the line carried weight given Charles' own financial biography.
What's documented
Charles' original public apology was issued May 9. Vargas' rejection of the private apology was reported May 15. The full text of the private apology was published by The Tab on May 15. Blanchard's GoFundMe donation was reported May 15. Whether Vargas' GoFundMe met its stated goal, whether Charles has responded to the rejection of his private message, and whether the "new initiative" Charles announced in his June 9 second apology addresses Vargas directly all remain, as of June 13, unanswered.
