Unless you live under a rock, you’ll know who it is. Andrew Tate. Even if you didn’t know him before, it’s more than likely that you’ve heard about the epic zasca with which the environmental activist Greta Thunberg ended the derision started by the self-described “self-made millionaire” on Twitter.
Of course, his subsequent arrest has not gone unnoticed by anyone. Last December, the well-known influencers right-wing extremist was arrested along with his brother in Romania. Both are accused of rape, human trafficking and criminal organization.
Andrew Tate, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, is known, however, for monetizing his misogyny online and publicly bragging about abusing women. Join us in this sad story about the return to hell of the last broken toy on the internet.
The early years of Andrew Tate: from poverty to television
Of an American father and a British mother, Emory Andrew Tate claims to have been born in Chicago, Illinois. Place where he lived until the divorce of his parents, when both he and his brother moved to Luton, England. There they knew poverty. As the brothers themselves have recounted in various interviews, they remember picking up leftovers at KFC to have something to eat. However, his luck changed over time.
After entering the world of kickboxing, Andrew Tate became a four-time world champion in this sport. He feat that he would drive him squarely on television through his appearance on the well-known program Big Brother, in the United Kingdom. But her career on the big screen was short-lived. Within seven days he was thrown out of the house after the tabloid the sun posted a video of him repeatedly hitting a woman with a belt.
It was a “spoiled” pornographic video that, he declared, “had been edited to cut out all the jokes and laughter” – because who doesn’t have fun while being hit with a belt? After his brief television dalliance, and with the fame achieved as a result of the incident, Andrew Tate found refuge on the internet.
Fame, cryptocurrencies and online misogyny
Not content with accumulating millions of followers on his main social networks, Andrew Tate created “Hustler’s University”. A community of cryptobros with teachers certified by the Tate itself who, according to their website, “will teach you how to earn real money” for a modest price of $50 per month. Quite a bargain.
Along with this “subscription scam”, he filled their profiles with misogynistic, homophobic and racist statements that made him a guru of the “politically incorrect”. Until in 2017, after affirming that depression does not exist and declaring, within the framework of the #MeToothat rape victims are partly to blame, their network profiles were suspended.
But the damage was done. Thousands of followers, mostly teenagers, as young as 13, continue to republish Andrew Tate content and have incorporated his hate speech into everyday life. With all the danger that this entails for the girls and adolescents who share their day-to-day life with them.
Andrew Tate’s first problems with justice
In a interview granted to Fox Nation, Andrew Tate declared feeling “silenced” by the powerful. However, around those same dates, his name accumulated More Google searches than Donald Trump or Kim Kardashian. Between supporters and detractors, it is clear that shamelessly boasting the most rancid machismo has been very profitable.
But unfortunately, as expected, his misogyny does not end on the networks. According to an investigation of VICEIn 2015, Andrew Tate was charged with rape in the UK. He happened during his television appearance on Big Brother, with the gravity that the production of the program knew it. However, they preferred to wait for the video leak to expel it; detracting from the absolute importance of the safety of the women who participated in the realityand those who were abused by Tate.
At the time, he was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and physical abuse. The police took four years to pass the case on to the Prosecutor’s Office, which ultimately, for unknown reasons, decided not to press charges. According to independent sourcesin the UK only one in 100 rape cases is prosecuted.
Now, VICE has had access to the testimonies of Andrew Tate’s victims. These women have stated that It was common for him to attack them in different ways during sudden outbursts of violence. He would choke them, whip them with a belt, or punch them.
One of them tells that one day she woke up with red freckles around her eyes. “She strangled me so hard that my blood vessels literally burst,” she claims. Another, that she witnessed how Tate raped her friend. Both denounce that, if the crimes had been prosecuted in 2015, she could have prevented him from continuing to abuse her.
The modus operandi of the business of misogyny
These attacks happened while these women were working for Andrew Tate in his pornography company through webcam live. Most of the girls were romantically involved with him when they entered the business. None of them had been involved in the sex industry before..
His recruitment methods are not a secret. In fact, Andrew Tate has bragged about them on more than one occasion. Lots of alcohol, young girls and the tactics of lover boy Mafia classic. Those are the keys to an industry based on the exploitation of women’s bodies. One in which a misogynist like Tate feels like a fish in water.
In a since-deleted section of his own website, Tate claimed his job was to “meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her and see if she’s quality. Making her fall in love with me to the point of doing whatever I tell her and then placing her on the webcam so we can get rich together.”
A submission achieved on the basis of psychological, physical and sexual abuse that, while, without a doubt, thickened the pockets of Andrew Tate, left the women victims of his mistreatment with serious consequences for life.
Romania, the beginning of the end by Andrew Tate
I’m not a rapist—are you sure?—but I like the idea of being able to do what I want. I like to be free
Andrew Tate
However, this mogul of sexual exploitation, who claimed to earn $600,000 a month with 75 girls working for him, decided to move to Romania when he started to feel the pressure. After the emergence of the #MeToo movement, it became more difficult for him to maintain his abuse and his hate speech in a society that was beginning to demand responsibility for his actions.
“I’m not a rapist—are you sure?—but I like the idea of being able to do what I want. I like to be free, ”he declared in one of the videos in which he explained the reasons for his final move to Romania. The rest is history.
In November 2022, following the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, Andrew Tate’s account on the social network was restored. Leading to his humiliating run-in with climate activist Greta Thunberg and his subsequent arrest by the authorities.
A story that ends up behind bars?
At the end of December 2022, the Romanian police claimed to have identified six women who were sexually exploited and forced to record pornographic content through physical violence and psychological coercion by the Tate brothers. Currently, both remain in police custody, accused of organizing a criminal group that stretched from Romania to the United Kingdom and the United States in order to traffic people for sexual purposes.
The questionable provenance of much of Andrew Tate’s money is also being investigated. According to Asset Management and Recovery Agency (ANABI) Romanian, assets worth 4 million dollars have been seized.
Only time, and the relevant authorities, will be able to determine if the story of Andrew Tate ends behind bars – although it has all the earmarks. However, its content on networks speaks loud and clear. A man who believes that women belong to him or who publicly encourages them to attack them, calling them a “slut”, is a danger to the integrity of women and a threat to any society that claims to be just and equal.