Glambot's Cole Walliser Breaks Silence on Leaked 2019 Viral Email Exchange Over Photo System's Cost
Glambot director Cole Walliser is speaking out about that leaked email that has been circulating online.
It all started when a Glambot video of Cole and Jennifer Lopez went viral, and Cole ended up defending JLo. However, a woman named Yinka Animashaun came forward with an email exchange she had with Cole from 2019 where she was inquiring about booking the photo booth for her wedding.
“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!” she wrote, to which he apparently responded, “It is not cheap, if you feel like something like this might be within your budget range, then I am happy to discuss further.”
“Yeah it’s something in my budget range :)” she said in response, to which Cole seemingly wrote back, “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. She then thanked him and said she’d reach out, to which he then allegedly 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.” She posted this all on X, and it went viral.
Now, Cole is addressing this controversial exchange.
Keep reading to find out more…
“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,” he noted in an Instagram video statement. “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 added, “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,” he continued. “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.”
“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…,” he added.
See how much it might actually cost to book the Glambot.