Who is Andrew Tate? The self-proclaimed misogynist influencer
Channel 5The controversial British-American influencer Andrew Tate is facing trial in Romania. He has been charged with rape, human trafficking and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women.
After more than seven months under house arrest, he was released in August 2023 but still faces restrictions on his movements.
His brother Tristan and two associates also face charges. All have denied the allegations.
Separately, they are wanted in the UK to face allegations of sexual assault which they also deny.
Self-proclaimed "misogynist" Andrew Tate first rose to fame after an appearance on the British version of reality TV show Big Brother in 2016. He only lasted six days on the programme, before being removed following the emergence of a video that appeared to show him attacking a woman.
He said at the time that the footage had been edited and was "a total lie trying to make me look bad".
Now, the 36-year-old former kickboxer boasts more than 6.9 million followers on Twitter - and a worldwide profile.
Who is Andrew Tate?
Tate - full name Emory Andrew Tate - was born in December 1986.
He is named after his father, an American who worked for the US Air Force in Britain, and who was also a chess master. His mother and father met in the UK before moving to America where Tate was raised until his parents divorced.
Following the divorce, Tate moved to Luton, England, with his mother.
Both Tate and his younger brother Tristan said they experienced poverty in England. In interviews, they recalled going to KFC to save other people's leftover chicken and freezing it for future meals.
Tate was a kickboxing world champion four times - but it was online where he found worldwide fame.
Tate has appeared in countless videos, flaunting an ultra-luxurious lifestyle of fast cars, private jets, and yachts.
Shortly before his arrest in December 2022, he engaged in a row with environmental activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter.
He claimed to have 33 cars and said he would send her a list of their "respective enormous emissions".
On TikTok, videos with the #AndrewTate hashtag have been viewed billions of times. That figure also includes videos made by people criticising the influencer.
What has Andrew Tate said about women?
In an interview with another YouTuber, he said he was "absolutely a misogynist", and added: "I'm a realist and when you're a realist, you're sexist. There's no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist."
In that same video, he described women as "intrinsically lazy" and said there was "no such thing as an independent female".
Andrew Tate has been singled out for the effect he has had in spreading misogyny online among boys and young men by authorities in the UK.
Speaking at the launch of a report into violence against women and girls in July 2024, Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth said: "We know that some of this is also linked to radicalisation of young people online, we know the influencers, Andrew Tate, the element of influencing of particularly boys, is quite terrifying."
The report stated that police were now working with counter-terrorism teams to combat the risks of young men being radicalised.
Numerous social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, have banned him - with the latter saying that "misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated".
Tate was banned from Twitter for saying women should "bear responsibility" for being sexually assaulted. He has since been reinstated on the platform, now known as X.
In a combative interview with the BBC in June 2023, when pushed on whether his controversial views on women harmed young people, the influencer claimed he was a "force for good" and that he was "acting under the instruction of God to do good things".
What are Andrew Tate's legal cases?
Andrew Tate and his brother face a number of civic and criminal legal cases.
Tate was detained alongside his brother Tristan in December 2022 in a suburb of the Romanian capital, Bucharest, as part of an investigation into allegations of human trafficking and rape, which they deny. The pair were charged along with two Romanian female suspects in June 2023.
In response to the charges against them, the media team for the Tate brothers said: "While this news is undoubtedly predictable, we embrace the opportunity it presents to demonstrate their innocence and vindicate their reputation."
In December 2023, the Tate brothers were ordered not to leave Romania after they made a request to visit their mother in hospital in the UK.
A Romanian court ruled in early July 2024 that Tate and his brother could leave the country but had to stay within the European Union. This decision was opposed by prosecutors, and overturned less than two weeks later by the Bucharest Court of Appeal.
In March 2024, British police investigating Andrew Tate on allegations of rape and human trafficking were granted a warrant to extradite him and his brother to the UK.
Separately, in May 2024, lawyers for four women who claim they were assaulted by Tate and his brother said they were bringing a civil case against him at the High Court in the UK for "damages for injuries they suffered as a result".
A representative for the Tate brothers said in response that they "unequivocally deny all allegations".
Another legal issue facing the pair in the UK is a civil case brought in July 2024 by Devon and Cornwall Police, in which they are accused of failing to pay any tax on £21m of revenue from their online businesses, including online "wealth creation" platform Hustlers' University.
A third person known only as J is also accused as part of the case, with the force seeking to recover about £2.8 million held in seven frozen bank accounts, an application which the defendants are contesting.
How does Andrew Tate make his money?
Tate has described himself as a "self-made multi-millionaire" and said he earned money through "a little webcam business from my apartment".
"I had 75 women working for me in four locations and I was doing $600,000 a month from webcam," he said in a podcast interview.
In a now-deleted page on his website, he said he brought women into the "adult entertainment industry".
Reuters"My job was to meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her, test if she's quality, get her to fall in love with me to where she'd do anything I say and then get her on webcam so we could become rich together," he wrote on the page - which was subsequently taken down in February 2022.
Tate works alongside his brother, Tristan, who told the Daily Mirror that their business was "all a big scam" which saw men pay to talk to women online.
"I've seen men sell cars, TVs... This guy's gran passed away and they were waiting for the sale of the house. When the house was sold he'd get £20,000 and promised it to [a model], to pay for her fake financial problem," Tristan told the Mirror.
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