This article contains graphic references to sexual violence, coercive control, and violence against women.
Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been charged with multiple counts of rape, human trafficking, and other offences in the UK. Andrew Tate, 38, faces a total of 10 charges, relating to three women, while his brother, Tristan, faces 11 charges relating to one woman. It's understood that the charges were authorised in January 2024, but have only just been made public.
Bedfordshire Police have issued an international arrest warrant over the allegations, which Andrew and Tristan Tate “unequivocally deny”.
The Tate brothers were previously arrested in Romania in 2022. Each was charged with human trafficking and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women, and Andrew was also accused of rape. They deny all the charges. According to British authorities, the Romanian courts will extradite the two to the UK once their court case has concluded. The whereabouts of the brothers is not immediately clear; they were last seen at a Romanian police station in March earlier this year, after they flew to Florida by private jet earlier in the year.
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 with the Sunday Mirror, Tristan admitted the business was a “scam” that involved the women lying to customers in order to obtain 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 a 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.
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.
Kyle Clifford watched Andrew Tate's content before murdering Louise, Hannah, and Carol Hunt. We need preventative action to stop this from happening again.
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. Hustlers University was shut down in August 2022. Andrew was also banned from TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
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.
“Women report boys blocking doorways and even barking at female staff, as well as watching increasingly violent pornographic material in class.”
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.
March 2024: Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate detained in Romania
The BBC reports that the brothers have been detained in Romania after European arrest warrants were issued by the UK. This comes after the four British women who had accused Tate wrote to British police fearing he and his brother might attempt to leave Romania where they are currently awaiting trial.
"We wrote to the British police... to urge them to immediately seek a warrant for Tate's detention in Romania and extradition to the UK," read a legal statement.
After being detained, the brothers' legal team issued a statement of their own. "They categorically reject all charges and express profound disappointment that such serious allegations are being resurrected without substantial new evidence," the statement read. “They are fully committed to challenging these accusations with unwavering determination and resolve.”
This article will be updated as the case unfolds.
For more information about emotional abuse and domestic abuse, you can call The Freephone National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge on 0808 2000 247.
For more information about reporting and recovering from rape and sexual abuse, you can contact Rape Crisis on 0808 500 2222.
If you have been sexually assaulted, you can find your nearest Sexual Assault Referral Centre here. You can also find support at your local GP, voluntary organisations such as Rape Crisis, Women's Aid, and Victim Support, and you can report it to the police (if you choose) here.
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