- Glambot director Cole Walliser recently faced backlash over resurfaced 2019 emails with a woman asking about a wedding booking.
- In the exchange, fans criticized Cole’s tone as dismissive, especially after he questioned the woman’s budget.
- Cole addressed the controversy in a January 27 video—and the woman, Yinka Animashaun, has since responded to his apology.
After going viral for defending Jennifer Lopez’s alleged “rude” treatment of him at the Golden Globes, Glambot director Cole Walliser is making a headlines again...though this time, it’s him that fans are accusing of rudeness. In the wake of the J.Lo incident, an email exchange reportedly between Cole and a woman named Yinka Animashaun from 2019 started making the rounds on the internet, in which Yinka asked him about booking his services for her wedding.
Fans weren’t in love with Cole’s response to the woman—but after weeks of silence, the Glambot guru is finally addressing the controversial exchange. In a video shared on January 27, Cole said, “I want to talk about some emails that I sent years ago that resurfaced recently. The tone in these emails was dismissive and curt and that is not okay. In 2019, I didn’t have a team around me. It was just myself. I edited every single video. I answered every single email and I was overwhelmed. But that is not an excuse. Everything lands on me.”
He continued, “I think the hardest part about all of this is being labeled racist. I’m half Chinese and growing up, issues of identity, race and belonging deeply affected me and I would never intend to inflict that onto anybody else. But I do understand that reading these emails, people could be upset, and assume bias, especially given the frequency at which people of color can experience being dismissed, and so I take responsibility for my words, irregardless of what my intent was.”
What’s more: “I also want to acknowledge people’s concerns that they were mistreated or felt dismissed or treated less than on the red carpet. Live events move really fast and I would never want someone to come see me and leave feeling that way. But I do understand that it could happen and it did happen and for that I am sorry.”
Cole then concluded with: “I’d like to think that I have grown a lot in the past 7 years and I always want to treat everybody with [the] respect that they deserve, but clearly more could be done and I can do better. And so that’s a thing that I want to focus on improving and just working towards being better.”
In case you missed it, in the 2019 email exchange, Yinka reportedly reached out to Cole to ask, “Are you/the Glambot available for private events such as a wedding? I’d love to have you at mine September 20th and September 22nd. Please let me know your availability and rates!”
His reported response: “It is not cheap, if you feel like something like this might be within your budget range, then I am happy to discuss further.”
Yinka then said, “Yeah it’s something in my budget range :)” to which Cole responded, “I don’t see how you could be since I didn’t say how much it was and could be between $10,000 and $1,000,000.”
Eventually, he told her it was $300,000, and when Yinka thanked him and said she’d reach out to book, Cole wrote back, “If you wanted to know how much it costs you just needed to ask, you don’t need to pretend you are going to book it.”
Oh, and if you’re wondering how Yinka feels about Cole’s statement...she’s not really having it. After he posted his apology, she took to X to write, “Hm. I think it’s interesting to offer an ‘apology’ to the public but not the person you disrespected but that’s just me!”
Welp!
