Jake Paul Vows To Be Better Friend, Team 10 Leader In Apology To Martinez Twins

Rather than fighting fire with fire, the controversial vlogger Jake Paul is trying remorse on for size in response to YouTube’s The Martinez Twins — who recently departed Paul’s Team 10 vlogger squad amid bullying allegations.

In a series of videos, Emilio and Ivan Martinez — who hail from Barcelona and count 3.9 million subscribers on their YouTube channel — alleged that Paul took advantage of their limited fluency in English to make jokes behind their backs. They also claim he conducted pranks that became unbearable, called them racist names, forced them to assault one another, and withheld some of their earnings from a brand deal.

Paul initially fired back at the allegations in a series of tweets, in which he said he felt “publicly backstabbed and betrayed,” and urged the twins to “stop being immature and making ‘videos’ so you can get views and ‘prove your point.’”

Yesterday, however, Paul posted a two-part video apology to Twitter

(see below) that struck a more conciliatory tone. “Nobody should ever feel bullied, and I truly apologize for not doing a better job as a leader and as a friend,” Paul says in the apology, which also teeters toward blame when he notes that the twins “never came to me or anyone and shared how they were feeling, which would’ve resolved the situation immediately. However, I do understand that they were apprehensive and shy.”

Paul promises that, despite the raucous high jinks, Team 10 is like a family. He said that he still loves the Martinez twins like brothers. While he hopes to eventually sit down with them to resolve any outstanding issues, he also says that the incident could represent “a way to teach an important lesson to our fans about communication and learning from your mistakes.” It remains to be seen whether the Martinez Twins will accept Paul’s apology.