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Evan Johnson at an event in October 2024; James Charles at an event in May 2025.
Evan Johnson was accused of domestic assault by ex-girlfriend Kayla Malec and sentenced to jail for a year and a half.
Social media influencer Evan Johnson spoke out for the first time since he was found guilty of domestic assault and sentenced to a year and a half in jail.
During his first interview shared with the public, Johnson said that the "most shocking allegation" against him is that he and beauty influencer James Charles had an intimate relationship. In other words, that his rumored involvement with Charles was more "shocking" than the accusations of physical assault from his ex-girlfriend, Kayla Malec.
The influencer appeared on a new podcast distributed on Patreon called The Sit Down with Chase Brown. According to the show's description, Brown "sits down with incarcerated individuals to find out what put them behind bars and their story on how they got there."
The first episode was released on May 19, and it featured Johnson — who called in from jail two weeks into his sentence to "discuss the interesting yet very big accusations against him," the description reads.
Brown teased the episode with a few interview clips on TikTok, which accumulated over one million views in total.
Brown, the podcast host, started the conversation plainly asking Johnson if there's any merit to the allegations against him.
"We gotta be specific about which allegations, because there are multiple allegations going at me at one time," Johnson replied. "I'm basically a punching bag at the end of the day right now."
Brown explains, "The most shocking to me is James Charles. There's people speculating online that something happened between you two."
Johnson agreed with Brown and said that he was shocked to find out that people believed something was going on between them.
According to Johnson, he kept asking himself, "Who in their minds would believe this?" The influencer then stated that he and Charles have known each other since he was 16.
"You know he DM'd me back in the day?" Johnson alleged, about Charles, saying that they were "homeboys."
Johnson elaborated, "No weird stuff, just homeboys," noting that Charles helped him through difficult times. The host reiterated that the two were just friends. Johnson agreed, "I'm sure James wished there could be more, but at the end of the day, I'm a straight man and I love women… Preferably blondes, to be specific."
@kaylamalecc i'm shaking. #fyp
On Wednesday, May 21, Malec uploaded a video reacting to Johnson's podcast appearance.
"I'm genuinely sitting here trying to hold back tears of anger," Malec said in her video, which has gotten over 8.2 million views in less than 24 hours. "Who the fuck was I dating for the past nine months? You're telling me that you're sitting in a jail cell after pleading guilty — in front of my face, in front of my family's face, my friends' faces, public record."
She added, "You plead guilty to domestic assault and now you're serving time for it, and while you are sitting in this jail, you collect-fucking-call a podcast and start yapping about how you're innocent and you never did it and that all the videos were AI?"
"How invalidating," Malec argued. How can you genuinely live in such a fantasy land?"
@jamescharles filmed this yesterday, but I promised privately that I would wait for the court case to be over before speaking publicly. happy kayla got the justice that she deserves 🤍
The allegations being referenced came from Johnson's reported ex-best friend, Zach Sellers, who went on a podcast and revealed that Johnson and Charles developed an intimate relationship after the breakup between Malec and Johnson.
Charles proclaimed his innocence in the situation by uploading a response video on May 7 where he admitted to a "brief friendship" but mostly distanced himself from Johnson. After a period of keeping a low profile, Malec eventually responded with a three-part 30-minute video series accusing Charles of messaging her about how he found Johnson attractive.
According to Malec, Charles jokingly asked her, "Can I have him now?" after they broke up. She also revealed that Johnson did "the worst things a human can do."
@kaylamalecc my side FINALLYY, part 1 #fyp
James Charles has yet to make a new statement in reaction to the claims shared on the podcast interview.
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.
