Content creators celebrate TikTok awards in Hollywood
Content creators gathered in Hollywood to celebrate the first-ever TikTok award show.
For months, rumors about influencer Charli D’Amelio’s relationship with her family have been circulating online, and a recent appearance on Quenlin Blackwell’s “Feeding Starving Celebrities” video series seems to have added more fuel to that fire.
In the video uploaded on Sept. 5, D’Amelio, the second-most followed TikToker with close to 160 million followers, starts the episode by surprising Blackwell with a pair of sweatpants from her merch store. As they’re talking about her many business ventures, Blackwell then asks her how much money she made from her merch. “Mmm, ain’t that the question,” D’Amelio responds as she looks into the camera and laughs as she adds, “Wouldn’t I like to know.”
This comes three months after People confirmed that she is no longer involved in the family’s popcorn brand, Be Happy Snacks, and the publication reported that the severed ties are allegedly a result of a financial dispute between her and her parents, Marc and Heidi D’Amelio. A representative for the brand told TMZ that her decision to bow out of the family business was “a formal amicable separation from D’Amelio Brands and D’Amelio Family LLC that everyone agreed to at the time.”
TMZ also reported that the separation began in March 2025 and was made official in November 2025, meaning she was out of the company for more than six months before the news broke.
USA TODAY reached out to representatives for Charli D’Amelio and her family for this story, but did not hear back.
The 22-year-old influencer is one of the most popular social media creators working today, having earned her TikTok following through her wildly popular dance videos while also winning her season of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and starring in a reality show on Hulu with her family.
Are Charli D’Amelio and her parents estranged?
Speculation about a rift between D’Amelio and her family began in October of 2025, when users on the NYC Influencer Snark subreddit noticed that she was no longer following her parents on Instagram, and they were no longer following her. Though both her mom and dad are following her sister, Dixie D’Amelio.
On May 30, the celebrity gossip Instagram page DeuxMoi uploaded a post alleging that money had been transferred out of her bank accounts. Her father, Marc, left a comment on the post. “No one called me for an interview. This is not true,” the comment reads. “We love Charli, but she is being manipulated, and I have the receipts. Over the last six years, we have remained silent and never addressed gossip, but the time has come to set the record straight.”
According to People, Marc responded to its request for comment and said: “There is nothing to say except the report is 100% not true.”
Her father took to TikTok Live around the same time to address the allegations. “She hasn’t reached out to me in some time. She’s mad at me for something,” he said. “I gave my daughters everything I thought they wanted and needed. And now you’ve got a bunch of team [members] around them that think they know what’s best for Charli, and I have all the receipts. The problem is, what am I going to do? If I sue someone, what’s that going to do? Drag my family into a lawsuit?”
He added, “Do you know how I communicate with my daughter, Charli? Through her lawyer,” Marc said on the livestream.
“We’re destroyed, man. We’re freaking devastated,” Marc pleaded on TikTok. “We want Charli back. We love her.”
He goes on to say that he doesn’t trust Charli’s business manager, and that helping build his daughters’ careers was never about the money: “It was always about having this crazy awesome experience with my family. As far as stealing money, if anything, I’m owed money.”
Is Dixie D’Amelio on her parents’ side of the Charli drama?
Charli’s sister Dixie D’Amelio has yet to make a public statement about where she stands on the alleged drama between Charli and her parents, and she no longer follows her sister on Instagram (her “following” list is private on TikTok).
Since Charli’s appearance on “Feeding Starving Influencers” went viral on social media, Dixie’s comment section on her most recent TikTok has been flooded with people lambasting her for not publicly supporting her sister.