Charli, Landon and Lil Huddy: The messy love triangle TikTok is obsessed with.

This story begins in 2019. And it starts on an app. TikTok. You might have heard of it.

Charli D'Amelio, like me, had just discovered it. But unlike me, she wasn't sitting in a dark corner, scrolling aimlessly. She was a 15-year-old that used TikTok to do exactly what it was made for: to create content. 

Charli produced low-production dancing and lip-syncing videos in her messy bedroom. She was an All-American girl, living in the small town of Norwalk, Connecticut (with a population of just 91,000).

Charli was a normal teenager – until she wasn't.

Listen to this episode of Lowbrow where Shannen Findlay breaks down the Gen Z Love Triangle you didn't know about, with Holly Wainwright. Post continues after audio. 

Within a year, she became one of the most followed creators on the app. In a matter of months, she had tens of millions of followers watching her every move. 

If you're wondering what she did next, the answer is obvious. 

Charli moved to Los Angeles, California, with her family and continued pursuing a lucrative career in social media influencing. It's one that she accidentally stumbled upon and now it's one she (understandably) does not want to let go of.

In 2020, she was declared the "reigning queen of TikTok" by the New York Times. 

In 2022, she became the star of her own reality show, The D'Amelio Family, the founder of two companies and the creator of her own photo editing platform. 

On TikTok, she has 148 million followers. ...Just for comparison, Academy Award-winning actor Will Smith only has 72.4 million followers.

According to reports, the 18-year-old is worth around $20 million. 

Charli D'Amelio, 2022. Image: Getty.

What has interested fans for the last three years though isn't necessarily how she got famous, or why, but rather who she got famous with. 

After moving to Los Angeles, Charli quickly fell in with the "cool kids" crowd – which included influencers Kouvr Annon, Nikita Dragun, Thomas Petrou, Larri Merritt, Alex Warren, Jack Wright and, most importantly, Chase Hudson (AKA Lil Huddy). 

Charli and Lil Huddy quickly became besties and posted videos as a pair. One of their first TikToks together went viral, with over two million likes. 

@charlidamelio HAHAHAH @lilhuddy dc: @_jondancer ♬ Juicy - Doja Cat

While they denied being in a relationship multiple times, the pair made it apparent they were going steady on Valentines Day 2020. Then in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Lil Huddy said they were "exclusive" but definitely not "official".

"We’ve been together a month," he said. "A month and a half, maybe. She was just like – uh hey do you wanna be exclusive and I was like 'ok' and she was like 'ok'."

But less than a month later, Huddy was called out for allegedly sending an explicit picture to another influencer saying he was "still softish" – in reference to his... penis. 

The pair broke up a short while later, with Charli telling fans: "I'm sorry I waited so long to tell you all. I wanted to take the time to process it for myself. Breakups are tough for anyone, so I'd really rather not talk about it anymore."

But it wasn't long before the couple had speculation surrounding them again, as they started making TikToks together and sharing them with their millions of followers. 

@charlidamelio the boy @lilhuddy ♬ REEL IT IN - Aminé

While they didn't ever officially announce their relationship was back on, it certainly didn't stop fans from wondering. 

That is, until June 2022, when Charli announced her new relationship with none other than Landon Barker, son of drummer Travis Barker and step-kid to Kourtney Kardashian.

According to reports, the pair met that same year through Charli's equally famous sister and kept their relationship quiet for months. 

Charli D'Amelio and Landon Barker, 2022. Image: Getty.

This new relationship triggered an instant flurry of "love triangle" headlines – suggesting there was some kind of romance overlap between Charli, Landon and Lil Huddy.

Lil Huddy didn't say much on socials, but he did respond in the form of a song, which he titled: 'All The Things I Hate About You'.

In the lyrics, he allegedly called Charli a "homie hopper", meaning someone who jumps from one person to another in the same friend group. Lil Huddy also went one step further by calling Landon a "bum star" who stole his girlfriend. 

Part of the fury – theorists allege – stems from the belief that once upon a time, Huddy and Landon were close friends. 

It was basically confirmed the pair had some sort of relationship when Huddy attended the reception of Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker's Italian wedding – presumably as Landon's guest (a month before he and Charli would publicly announce their relationship to the world).

In an Instagram story that evening, Huddy shared a photo of them both with the caption: "4L" – meaning "for life". 

Image: Instagram @lilhuddy. 

Landon has blatantly denied any and all claims he has ever been a good pal of Huddy's, clarifying in a TikTok comment that he never "stole" Charli from anyone. 

"To clear up the confusion, I didn’t steal her from him. They broke up six months ago," he wrote this year. "Me and Huddy were friends, never best friends. There’s so much more I can touch on but I just wanna keep my personal life outta this."

As for how Charli is feeling? She hasn't said much, but in an interview with the BFFs podcast, she did show that she wasn't all that bothered by the love triangle gossip that has surrounded her for the last six months.

"I think that I love that people think about me enough to write songs about me."

I couldn't have said it better myself, Char.

Feature Image: Getty/Instagram @charlidamelio.