Andrew Tate has been charged with rape, human trafficking and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women, following a long period of detention since his arrest and in December 2022 in Romania.
The controversial social media personality appeared to remain active on Twitter despite his imprisonment and countless incidences of misogynistic outbursts and viewpoints – from insinuating that women are the property of men to blaming rape victims and describing violence towards women.
But Andrew has remained popular amongst his millions of fans, who laud him for promoting ‘male empowerment’ – and his reach includes even young students in the UK. According to The Guardian, schoolteachers have reported rising misogyny and incidences of boys quoting Andrew's alarming views to each other – with many schools holding special assemblies and lessons in order to discuss his dangerous content.
A new poll revealed that 26 percent of young men agree with Tate's views on women. Here's what you can do.
At the time of writing, Andrew Tate has been charged with a number of crimes including rape – while his brother Tristan and two other associates have also been charged. Here, GLAMOUR breaks down everything that has happened so far, from Andrew's early years in the limelight to the current charges against him.
1986: Andrew Tate's birthplace and family
Andrew Tate was born in Washington, D.C. to his parents Emory Tate and Eileen Tate. Emory was a member of the airforce and an acclaimed Chess player – described as “a trailblazer for African-American chess” – Andrew has said in multiple interviews that he was not around a lot during his childhood.
In one clip, he says: “My mother was quite subservient to my father, my father was certainly a disciplinarian, he was the man in charge of the house… my dad's basic tenant was: your mother is in charge of keeping you alive. Food, go to bed on time, eat good, go to school. But I'm in charge of teaching you how to be a man and conquer the world… they had very clear defined roles.”
Andrew's parents split up after Emory left the airforce, and his mother Eileen moved back to her birthplace of England with her children when Andrew was 11. Andrew also has a brother, Tristan, and a sister, Janine.
2007: Andrew Tate's kickboxing career
After starting self defence classes and martial arts, Andrew began training in kickboxing under his coach Amir Subasic at a gym in Luton. One of his first professional fights was in April 2007. By 2009, he had won the British ISKA (International Sport Karate Association) Full Contact Cruiserweight Championship in Derby, going by the name King Cobra.
2011: Joins Twitter
Andrew wins his first ISKA world title by beating Jean-Luc Benoit, and begins to make a name for himself. He joins Twitter as @cobratate.
The fourth woman to accuse Tate of sexual violence shares her story.
Andrew Tate's webcam company
Around this time, he launched a webcam company with his brother, Tristan, from his apartment in London. Andrew describes it as “webcam pimping” in this interview clip, in which he said the business was making him $600,000 a month, with 75 women working for him from four locations.
In a 2022 exclusive from the Sunday Mirror, Tristan admitted the business was a “scam” that saw the women lie to customers in order to get money from them.
2016: Big Brother
Andrew appeared on series 17 of Big Brother, but was removed from the house on day 7 after The Sun published a video which showed him whipping an ex-girlfriend with a belt before slapping her in the face.
Channel 5 shared a statement that read: “Channel 5 and the producers reached the view that Andrew's position as a housemate had become untenable after a video was brought to our attention by The Sun.”
Andrew later maintained that the video showed a consensual act. Speaking to The Sun himself, he said: “This tape is a kinky sex video and we’re acting out a role play. A longer version of the video shows us laughing and I’m hitting myself saying ‘it doesn’t hurt’.”
The woman involved also stated that the act was consensual.
2017: Andrew Tate moves to Romania
Andrew and his brother Tristan relocate to Romania, where they live in large compound. The Bucharest house is a converted warehouse with armed guards – which was one of the reasons, he told The Times, why he wanted to leave the UK, where it wouldn't be allowed.
In another online video which has been deleted, Andrew is also said to have hinted that the move to Romania was due to more relaxed sexual assault laws. “I’m not a rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free,” he reportedly said.
At this time, Andrew was becoming more controversial on social media – when the Harvey Weinstein scandal first broke, he made some worrying victim-blaming comments on Twitter.
“If you put yourself in a position to be raped, you must bare some responsibility,” he wrote. He was banned from Twitter for his comments.
The new ‘allyship training’, spearheaded by the mayor of London, will teach students about healthy relationships
2022: TikTok era
Andrew Tate became prominent once again in 2022, when his provocative and controversial views began circulating on TikTok.
In starting another business called Hustlers University, he encouraged fans to take his online course – which was billed as a masterclass in cryptocurrency, e-commerce and stock trading – for a monthly fee. The website featured numerous videos of supercars and yachts filled with women, and also called for users to share Andrew's content online in order to recruit more members and earn a commission. It's said that they were actively encouraged to share controversial videos that would start “war” online. Critics declared it a pyramid scheme.
This led to thousands of videos of Andrew's worrying statements being shared across social media, particularly TikTok. Examples of the content included videos of him saying women are a man’s property and talking about hitting and choking women. Hustlers University was shut down in August 2022. Andrew was also banned from TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
He told the Observer that the videos showed him playing a “character”, and had been taken out of context. “It is very unfortunate that old videos of me, where I was playing a comedic character, have been taken out of context and amplified to the point where people believe absolutely false narratives about me,” he said. “I am genuinely innocent. I truly believe God will prevail.”
November 2022: Andrew Tate is back on Twitter
Andrew Tate returned to Twitter in late 2022, following Elon Musk's takeover of the platform – and has been regularly tweeting since then.
December 2022: Andrew Tate takes on Greta Thunberg, and is subsequently arrested
Andrew turned his attention to climate activist Greta Thunberg on 27 December 2022, tweeting a picture of one of his cars and the message: “Hello @GretaThunberg… I have 33 cars. My Bugatti has a w16 8.0L quad turbo. My TWO Ferrari 812 competizione have 6.5L v12s. This is just the start. Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions.”
Greta succinctly replied: "Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com.” It has become one of the most-liked tweets of all time.
Andrew responded with a video directed at Greta, in which he smokes a cigar and rants before being handed some takeaway pizza boxes. Not long afterwards, he was arrested following a police raid on his home – with many theorising that the Romanian pizza restaurant had given away Andrew's location to the authorities (this has since been denied).
It made for yet another cutting response from Greta, however: “This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.”
Andrew and his brother are detained in Romania on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group. Prosecutors say they have found six victims who claim to have been sexually exploited by the suspects for the purpose of creating internet pornography. A judge rules that the brothers should be detained for 30 days.
“Nudifying” AI tools that “undress” women in photos are gaining traction.
January 2023: Andrew Tate appeals his detention in jail
On 10 January 2023, a Romanian court upheld the 30-day arrest of Andrew Tate, his brother Tristan and two Romanian women who were also arrested on the same charges. According to Sky News, a document explaining the judge's decision said "the possibility of them evading investigations cannot be ignored" and they could "leave Romania and settle in countries that do not allow extradition". Andrew attended the court hearing, arriving handcuffed to his brother Tristan.
The brothers were investigated by DIICOT, Romania's anti-organised crime agency. The agency said victims were lured under the pretence of a romantic relationship, then through physical violence and mental intimidation, forced to perform pornographic acts for social media sites which generated large financial gains.
They deny all allegations. Per The Independent, the brothers' lawyer, Eugen Vidineac, told Romanian online newspaper Gandul: “There is not a single piece of evidence apart from the victim’s statement that leads to the idea that a crime of rape was committed.”
Of human trafficking offences, he added: “In my view, there is no evidence there either, and I’m talking about evidence leading, by itself or directly, to the formation of an opinion of reasonable suspicion regarding the commission of offences provided for and punishable by criminal law.”
Speaking of Andrew's social media presence, he said: "In the case of the Tate brothers, I don’t know what their intent was in promoting themselves on social media, but I sit here and wonder, can that intent from the social media stand as evidence in a criminal prosecution case, with respect to a criminal character?”
March 2023: Andrew Tate wins appeal to go on house arrest
On 31 March, it was confirmed that Andrew had won an appeal to end his detention in jail and be held on house arrest.
June 2023: Andrew Tate is charged
On 20 June, Andrew Tate was formally charged with rape, human trafficking and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women.
According to BBC News, the indictment deposited with the Bucharest court said that the four defendants (Andrew, his brother Tristan and the two other associates) formed an organised criminal group in 2021 to commit human trafficking in Romania, but also in other countries including the US and the UK. Seven alleged victims were named – one of which Andrew is accused of raping.
The trial will not start immediately and is expected to take several years, following a judge's inspection of the case files.
This article will be updated as the case unfolds.
