Andrew Tate, the controversial former kickboxing world champion turned social media influencer who is charged with human trafficking in Romania, has left for the US.
Tate, alongside his brother Tristan, were first arrested three years ago on allegations of trafficking minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering. They denied all claims.
The White House reportedly pressured the Romanian government to lift the travel restrictions on the Tate brothers, who are both dual US-UK citizens.
The Tate brothers flew out of the capital Bucharest on Thursday morning after their travel ban was lifted. DIICOT, the anti-organised crime agency in Romania, said prosecutors had approved a “request to modify the obligation preventing the defendants from leaving Romania”.
It is believed that the brothers still remain under investigation and are expected to return to Romania at the end of March.
Andrew, 38 and Tristan, 36, deny all wrongdoing across a string of civil and criminal cases relating to sex abuse and trafficking in the UK, US and Romania.
The case in Romania – in which two Romanian women were also charged – relates to rape and human trafficking offences, which includes organising an alleged criminal group to sexually exploit women. The case was sent back to prosecutors in December due to procedural issues and there is no current date set for a trial.
Tate was released from house arrest in January, after he was subjected to it when a second criminal case was brought against the pair in Romania last August.
But he has also seen his accounts banned over inflammatory statements he has made, often appearing to advocate violence against women, which the platforms ruled violated their policies.
He is frequently accused of embodying toxic masculinity and misogyny, having claimed that women cannot drive, belong in the home and are a man’s property.
He told the Anything Goes with James English podcast in June 2021 that he was “absolutely sexist” and “absolutely a misogynist”, only to then claim on Piers Morgan Uncensored more recently that he was “absolutely not”.
Teachers are increasingly concerned about the spread of his messages of male empowerment and his potentially radicalising influence on impressionable teenage boys.
Here is a brief introduction to the life and times of Andrew Tate.
1986
Emory Andrew Tate III was born in Washington, DC, on 1 December to Emory Tate Jr, a sergeant of the US Air Force and a chess International Master, and his English wife Eileen, a catering assistant.
Initially raising their children in Chicago, Illinois, the couple divorced in 1997, at which point Eileen Tate relocated to a council estate in Luton, Bedfordshire, with her young family, where she reportedly still lives.
Tate has described his mother as “my hero” but says they were “broke as a joke” during his childhood.
2005
The young Andrew Tate starts boxing and martial arts training while reportedly also working as a TV producer.
2009
Earns his first kickboxing championship when he wins the British ISKA Full Contact Cruiserweight Championship in Derby, going by the name King Cobra.
2011
Wins his first ISKA world title by beating Jean-Luc Benoit via knockout.
As his celebrity begins to grow, Tate joins Twitter, initially as @Cobratate.
2012
Tate and his brother Tristan begin their first adult webcam business employing lingerie-clad models to engage in chat sessions with men.
In a later interview with The Mirror in March 2022, the brothers joke that their webcam ventures, which charge customers $4 (£3.30) an hour, are “a total scam” because the models featured often tell lonely male callers “fake sob stories” to elicit sympathy and earn larger tips.
Tristan Tate tells the newspaper the brothers are protected by two lines in their terms and conditions: “One is broadcasting is ‘for entertainment purposes only’. That means if a model says she has a sick dog or a sick grandma it doesn’t have to be true.
“The next is that all cash given to models is ‘a voluntary sign of gratitude for their time broadcasting’.”
2013
Wins his second ISKA world title in a 12-round match against Vincent Petitjean.
2016
Invited onto the 17th season of the reality TV show Big Brother, Tate quickly attracts scrutiny over his track record of controversial statements. He is removed from the house after just six days when a video surfaces showing him hitting a woman with a belt.
In a statement, both he and the woman featured in the clip say they are friends and that the actions depicted were consensual.
2017
He moves to Bucharest, Romania, with Tristan, setting up home in a heavily-fortified suburban compound and claiming the UK has “gone downhill”.
He said the prospect of avoiding rape charges more easily was “probably 40 per cent of the reason” for moving to Central Europe, adding: “I’m not a f***ing rapist, but I like the idea of just being able to do what I want. I like being free.
“If you’re a man living in England or Germany or America or any of the Western world right now you’ve decided to live in a country where any woman … at any point in the future can destroy your life.”
He later tells The Times this was intended as an attack on litigation culture, commenting: “A dying empire adopts laws like a sick man adopts medicine.”
Having already stirred controversy on Twitter by claiming depression “isn’t real”, Tate is permanently suspended from the platform after saying on 18 October that women should “bear some responsibility” for being sexually assaulted, part of a thread commenting on the Harvey Weinstein affair.
“I don’t agree with being banned, people get banned from Twitter all the time and make new profiles,” he said subsequently.
“I’m not inciting violence, promoting terrorism or harassing anyone. This is censorship of free speech. I’ve never had specific tweets banned or been cautioned.”
The controversy boosts his profile among far-right conservatives, bringing him into the company of Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson and Donald Trump Jr in America and Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson in the UK.
August 2022
Having continued to build his following on social media and in right-wing media, a campaign to de-platform Tate resulted in his being banned from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
In a “final” video, Tate claims that many of the criticisms levied at him are based on clips that have been misrepresented.
“I have some responsibility to bear. I still blame myself, because my rise has been so meteoric and I became so famous so quickly,” he said.
“If there was as many people cutting up videos like they did mine and those people had a negative agenda, they could make Mickey Mouse look evil, you could make anyone look bad.”
His message is dismissed by Hope Not Hate’s research director, Joe Mulhall, who tells The Independent the clip attempts “to completely rewrite his behaviour, justify the unjustifiable, and … takes no responsibility”.
That same month, financial services company Stripe pulls out of processing subscriptions for Hustler’s University, another Tate business billed as an online “academy” where members pay a monthly membership fee in exchange for advice on how to make a passive income from online industries such as cryptocurrency.
The venture reportedly has around 100,000 paying subscribers who are charged around $49 (£40) per month but Stripe’s decision prompts it to shut its affiliate marketing programme, which had encouraged the spread of Tate videos across social networks.
October 2022
After a video of Tate praying at a mosque in Dubai with MMA fighter Tam Khan goes viral, he announces he has converted to Islam in a post on Gettr.
November 2022
Tate is reinstated on Twitter by new owner Elon Musk, along with other previously banned right-wing figures including Donald Trump, Kanye West and Jordan Peterson.
28 December 2022
Shortly after Christmas, Tate posts his now-infamous tweet to Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, boasting about his Bugatti and Ferraris and asking for her email address so he can “send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions”.
“Yes, please do enlighten me,” she responded. “Email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com.”
The internet duly erupts, prompting Tate to respond initially rather weakly by asking “How dare you?!”. He then returned with a video of himself sporting a dressing gown and smoking a cigar claiming to believe the joke has backfired on Thunberg and accusing the “global matrix” of deploying a “bot farm” to send her tweet viral.
29 December 2022
A day later, Tate and his brother are detained in Romania for 30 days, along with two women, on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and forming an organised crime group. Prosecutors say they have found six women who claim to have been sexually exploited by the suspects for the purpose of creating internet pornography.
An investigation has reportedly been underway since April.
30 December 2022
As excitable social media rumours suggest that a Jerry’s Pizza box featured in Tate’s video inadvertently revealed his location to the authorities, Thunberg tweets about him again, declaring: “This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.”
3 January 2023
Tate’s valuable luxury car collection is seized by the Romanian authorities.
8 January 2023
One of the two Tate brothers is allegedly hospitalised after a medical check-up in jail, according to Antena 3, a CNN-partnered Romania news site.
A cryptic tweet follows from Tate’s account, although it is unclear if he wrote it himself, which states: “The Matrix has attacked me. But they misunderstand, you cannot kill an idea. Hard to Kill.”
10 January 2023
Tate appears in court in Bucharest to appeal his detention, arriving wearing handcuffs and bearing a copy of the Quran.
His lawyers insist there is “no evidence” against him but the judge rules against him.
31 March 2023
Tate wins an appeal to replace his detention with house arrest after the Bucharest Court of Appeal rules against a judge’s decision to extend his incarceration for a fourth time for another 30 days.
20 June 2023
Andrew and Tristan Tate are formally charged with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.
The pair are accused, along with the two Romanian women, of tricking seven alleged victims with false declarations of love and transporting them to take part in pornography. The women were allegedly controlled by “intimidation, constant surveillance” and claims they were in debt, the prosecution says.
13 July 2023
The Tates launch a $5m lawsuit against a Florida woman whom they claim falsely accused them of imprisoning her in Romania, leading to their arrest there on human trafficking charges.
4 August 2023
Andrew Tate’s appeal against house arrest succeeds. Speaking to reporters outside court two days earlier, the influencer had promised: “The truth will be known very soon.”
8 January 2024
The controversial influencer regained access to his supercars, designer watches and properties after a court overturned a decision to seize his assets.
Prosecutors had previously seized 15 luxury vehicles, more than 10 properties and 14 designer watches as well as two blocks of precious metal.
Tate, a social media influencer known for his misogynistic videos, told reporters afterwards: “They took a lot of stuff… 15 cars, and they took a lot of things of a lot of value.
“It’d be nice to get my things back.”
12 March
Both brothers have been arrested in Romania over allegations of sexual aggression that date back to 2012 to 2015 and took place within the UK.
They were detained for 24 hours and notified of a European arrest warrant that had been issued by Westminster Magistrates Court, with the Bucharest Court of Appeal set to decide whether to execute the warrants.
Their extradition to the UK will be arranged after the Romania case is complete.
Both Andrew and Tristan Tate deny the allegations, with their representatives saying they were “fully committed to challenging these accusations with unwavering determination and resolve”.
8 May
Andrew Tate is been served with civil proceedings papers at his home in Romania.
Lawyers on behalf of four British women said the alleged victims are bringing a case against Tate at the High Court in the UK, after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to prosecute in 2019.
McCue Jury and Partners said all four women allege Tate raped and assaulted them and are seeking “damages for injuries they suffered as a result”.
22 August
Andrew Tate is placed back under house arrest by a Romanian judge as prosecutors investigate new allegations concerning sex with a minor and trafficking underage persons.
Tristan Tate was placed under special judicial control, and another four people were detained in connection to the case. Both brothers strongly denied the accusations.
The day before, authorities seized cash, luxury watches, laptops, hard drives documents and 16 luxury cars during a search of four properties.
18 December
A court rules that Devon and Cornwall Police can seize more than £2 million from the Tate brothers after they failed to pay any tax in £21 million of revenue from their online business.
Devon and Cornwall Police made a legal bid to seize the money, held in seven frozen bank accounts, from the Tates and a woman identified only as J.
In his judgment handed down at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said what appeared to be a “complex financial matrix” was actually a “straightforward cheat of the revenue”.
19 December
A court in Romania rules the first case involving the Tate brothers and two other women cannot proceed to trial due to multiple legal and procedural irregularities on the part of the prosecutors.
The case was sent back to prosecutors for further review, but it did not mean the defendants could walk free.
14 January 2025
Andrew Tate is released from house arrest pending the outcome of a criminal investigation, and is now under judicial control.
This means he can travel within Romania “while adhering to the required legal conditions”, according to the BBC.
10 February
An American woman accuses the Tate brothers of coercing her to Romania under false pretences, attempting to “recruit her” into a sex work and then “bullying and harassing” her in a defamation suit.
The civil suit was filed Monday in a Florida court, where the Tate brothers — known online for their misogynistic comments — sued the unnamed woman for defamation in 2023.
Joseph McBride, a lawyer for the Tate brothers, told The Independent in an email: “[The center’s] civil suit represents a poorly constructed and desperate attempt to relitigate the failed Romanian criminal case in a U.S. court.
The unidentified woman’s lawyer, Dani Pinter, told The Independent: “The Tate Brothers supposedly sued Jane Doe because they claimed her testimony to Romanian authorities was a lie. Now, when for the first time Jane Doe tells her side of the story, they threaten sanctions. I think that speaks for itself as to where the truth lies.”
27 February
Andrew and Tristan Tate fly out of Romania following reports that the Trump administration had pressed the Bucharest government to lift travel restrictions.
A Romanian official said the decision to lift their travel ban had been made by prosecutors.
The brothers left the country after 5am local time on a private jet from Baneasa airport. Local media reported the brothers were on a flight to Florida, citing “airport sources”.
Romania’s anti-organised crime agency, DIICOT, said prosecutors approved a “request to modify the obligation preventing the defendants from leaving Romania”, adding: “These include the requirement to appear before judicial authorities whenever summoned.
“The defendants have been warned that deliberately violating these obligations may result in judicial control being replaced with a stricter deprivation of liberty measure.”
