Emory Andrew Tate III (born 1 December 1986) is an American-British social media personality, businessman, and former professional kickboxer. His controversial commentary has resulted in his expulsions from various social media platforms and concern that he is encouraging misogynistic views amongst young males. As of December 2023, he had over 8.5 million followers on X (formerly Twitter) and was the third-most "googled" person in 2023, with most British adults aware of who he is. As of March 2024, Tate is facing criminal charges in Romania and the United Kingdom. He has also been dubbed the "king of toxic masculinity", and identified as part of the manosphere.
Emory Andrew Tate III was born on 1 December 1986 at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He is multiracial. His African American father Emory Tate (1958–2015) was a chess international master, and his White English mother Eileen Tate worked as a catering assistant. He has a younger brother, Tristan, and a younger sister, Janine. He was raised in Chicago, Illinois and Goshen, Indiana. After his parents divorced, his mother took him and his brother to Luton, England. He was educated at Halyard High School and Luton Sixth Form College. Tate was raised as a Christian.
Tate first began to kickbox in 2005, winning several kickboxing titles in the late 2000s and early 2010s. In 2016, he appeared on the British reality series Big Brother, but was removed as he was the suspect in an open rape investigation in the United Kingdom. After his kickboxing career, Tate and his brother, Tristan, began operating a webcam model business, followed by selling online courses. With his audience from his courses, he became prominent as an internet celebrity promoting a masculine, luxurious lifestyle. Tate's courses include: Hustler's University, which gained 100,000 subscribers, later rebranded to The Real World; and the secretive War Room group, which has been accused by the BBC of coercing women into sex work, and teaching violence against women. In August 2023, it was estimated that Tate's online ventures generated US$5 million in revenue per month. He has also been described as a right-wing and far-right influencer, and has described himself as "absolutely" misogynistic and sexist.
Tate started practising boxing and other martial arts in 2005, and worked in the television advertising industry to support himself. In November 2008, he was ranked the seventh-best light heavyweight kickboxer in the United Kingdom by the International Sport Kickboxing Association (ISKA). In 2009, he received his first championship when he won the British ISKA Full Contact Cruiserweight Championship in Derby, won the International Kickboxing Federation British belt and received the top rank in his division across Europe. Tate's kickboxing nickname was "King Cobra".
In 2011, Tate won his first International Sport Kickboxing Association (ISKA) world title in a rematch against Jean-Luc Benoît via knockout, having previously lost to Benoit by decision. In 2012, Tate lost the Enfusion championship tournament to Franci Grajš. Before his loss, he was ranked second-best light-heavyweight kickboxer in the world. In 2013, Tate won his second ISKA world title in a 12-round match against Vincent Petitjean, making him world champion in two weight divisions. He defended the ISKA Belt and Won the Enfusion Belt in 2014 making him a four-time world champion, prior to retiring with 31 recorded fights.
According to Vice News, Tate was arrested in 2015 after separate complaints were filed by two accusers. He was also arrested for another case after an accuser presented messages sent by Tate in which he stated, "I love raping you".
Tate gained widespread attention in 2016 when he appeared on the British reality series Big Brother, during its seventeenth series. While appearing on the show, he came under scrutiny for previously having made homophobic and racist posts on Twitter. He was removed from the show after six days, with producers citing a video apparently showing Tate hitting a woman with a belt. Tate and the woman said that they were friends and that the actions in the video were consensual. Vice later reported that the removal was caused by the producers becoming aware of an ongoing police investigation for rape, closed in 2019 with no charges filed.
In 2017, Tate moved from the United Kingdom to Romania with his brother, Tristan Tate, with whom he runs multiple businesses. He said that he moved because he liked "living in countries where corruption is accessible for everybody" and believed that he would be less likely to face rape charges in Romania. He claimed that Romanian police would ask women reporting rapes for "evidence" or "CCTV proof", whereas in the Western world, amid the MeToo movement, Tate said that any woman "at any point in the future can destroy your life." Tate reportedly has a number of children living in Romania whom he occasionally visits.
Tate received attention in 2017 for his tweets describing his view of what qualifies as sexual harassment amid the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases, and for tweeting several statements about his view that sexual assault victims share responsibility for their assaults. He has been criticised for saying that depression "isn't real", that women; "belong in the home", "can't drive", are "given to the man and belong to the man", as "a man's property". Tate has also claimed that men prefer dating 18- and 19-year-olds, because they are "likely to have had sex with fewer men", in order to "make an imprint" on teenagers, and that women who do not stay at home are "hoes". According to Tate, certain comments were intended as jokes and have been taken out of context.
Advertised by Tate and costing $8,000, the War Room is described as "a global network in which exemplars of individualism work to free the modern man from socially induced incarceration" claiming to teach men "physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and financial development". The alleged leader of the group, Miles Sonkin, also known as Iggy Semmelweiss, met Tate in 2018 and the group was established in 2019. The Tate brothers are considered to be the head of the group. In August 2023, a BBC investigation led by Matt Shea discovered evidence of women groomed into online sex work by members of the group, described as an all-male secretive society. In response, Tate claimed:
In 2019, after a four-year investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service declined to file charges for any of the allegations for sexual violence and physical abuse, stating that the evidence "did not meet our legal test, and there was no realistic prospect of a conviction", and that "it would be wrong to say there was just one issue" with the evidence. The three women have commented that the case was mishandled, with the police apologising for delays in the investigation, while according to Tate, the police "found [exculpatory] messages from the girls' phones".
Prior to Tate going mainstream in 2022, he became known among the online far-right through his appearances on InfoWars and acquaintances including Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec, and Paul Joseph Watson. In 2019, Tate attended the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and befriended the far-right conspiracy theorist Jacob Wohl, who later joined his War Room group and defended Tate over his prosecution. He is accused by Hope not Hate of having a "long history of racist statements, homophobia and links to the organised far-right". In February 2023, Thierry Baudet, founder and leader of the far-right Forum for Democracy, described Tate as an "outspoken political dissident" and "courageous critic", tabling a motion in the Dutch parliament regarding his detention in Romania.
In an interview on the podcast Anything Goes with James English in 2021, Tate declared:
Three of Tate's Twitter accounts have been suspended at different times. In 2021, an account that he created to evade his previous ban was verified by Twitter, contrary to their policies. The account was subsequently permanently banned, and Twitter said the verification occurred in error.
Tate operated Hustler's University, a platform where members paid a US$49.99 monthly membership fee to receive instruction on ways to make money outside traditional employment, such as cryptocurrency, copywriting, and e-commerce, which was facilitated by pre-recorded videos and a Discord server. The website employed an affiliate marketing program, where members received a commission for recruiting others to the platform. Tate became highly prominent in 2022 by encouraging members of Hustler's University to post large numbers of videos of him to social media platforms in an effort to maximise engagement. In August 2022, the platform had amassed over 100,000 subscribers, the Irish-American financial services company Stripe pulled out of processing subscriptions for the platform, and Hustler's University shut down its affiliate marketing program. Paul Harrigan, a marketing professor at the University of Western Australia, stated the affiliate program constituted a social media pyramid scheme. After Hustler's University was shut down, Tate launched a rebranded version of the program called "The Real World" in October 2022. In March 2023, according to the website, the platform has gained 168,000 subscribers, equating to $8 million in revenue per month.
On 11 April 2022, the U.S. embassy received a report that an American citizen was being held against her will in a property owned by the Tate brothers in Pipera, Romania. The Romanian police raided the home, and a nearby webcam studio belonging to the Tates, where they discovered four women. Two of them, the American and another Romanian woman, told the police they were being held against their will, sparking an in-rem investigation into human trafficking and rape by DIICOT, the Romanian anti-organised crime agency. The two brothers were interrogated and released. At the time, they were heard as witnesses rather than suspects.
Evidence suggested violence against women was also taught and discussed, with victims claiming sex was used as a manipulation technique, known as the "lover boy" method. Members of the group believed they were performing "Pavlovian conditioning" on the women, with submission tests such as receiving tattoos on their bodies of members initials. A whistleblower, who claimed to be former head of sales and marketing, described the group as a cult that he had been "brainwashed" by. A spokeswoman for Tate stated the BBC's findings "not only present false accusations, but insult the massive community that considers Andrew Tate a life changing positive force". According to Rolling Stone, a guiding principle of the group is to attain multiple passports and citizenships, to achieve autonomy from "The Matrix", describing the group as a "fraternity-like organization". As of August 2022, there were 434 members and 45 potential victims, based on the leaked chat logs.
In August 2022, following an online campaign to deplatform him, Tate was permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram, losing 4.7 million followers from the latter. Parent company Meta claimed he had violated their policy on "dangerous organizations and individuals". TikTok, where videos featuring Tate's name as a hashtag have been viewed over 13 billion times, also removed his account after determining that it violated their policies on "content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against, or otherwise dehumanises an individual or a group". Shortly thereafter, YouTube also suspended his channel, where he had 760,000 subscribers, citing multiple violations, including hate speech and COVID-19 misinformation, and he later deleted his own Twitch channel, that had 50,000 subscribers. In November 2022, after the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, Tate's Twitter account was reinstated.
Tate became widely known in mid-2022 and was searched on Google more times than both Donald Trump and COVID-19 that July. In August 2022, The Guardian reported that videos of Tate on TikTok have been viewed 11.6 billion times. As of December 2023, Tate has over 8.5 million followers on X (formerly Twitter), an increase of 5 million since December 2022. He was the third most "googled" person in 2023 and his Wikipedia article, with over 12 million views, was ranked among the top 25 English Wikipedia articles in 2023.
Tate was raised Christian but later became an atheist. By early 2022, he identified as a Christian again, and said that he tithed £16,000 to the Romanian Orthodox Church on a monthly basis. After a video of him praying at a mosque in Dubai went viral in October 2022, he announced on his Gettr account that he had converted to Islam.
After an initial 24-hour pre-trial detention following the arrests, the judge prolonged their detention by 30 days. The Tates appealed the extension, but the appeal was rejected on 10 January. Under Romanian law, it can be prolonged for a maximum of 180 days. In total, the four suspects, including the Tate brothers, were held in police custody from 29 December 2022 until 31 March 2023.
In December 2022, Tate addressed the environmentalist Greta Thunberg in a tweet extolling his carbon-emitting automobiles and asked for her email address to give her more information. Thunberg replied with the fake, satirical email address "smalldickenergy@getalife.com". The exchange received substantial attention on Twitter, with Thunberg's retort quickly becoming one of the most-liked tweets ever.
In December 2022, Tate and his brother Tristan were arrested in Romania along with two women. All four were charged in June 2023 with rape, human trafficking, and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women. In July 2023, two of the accusers reportedly went into hiding after a campaign of online harassment, and the Tate brothers filed a defamation lawsuit claiming US$5 million in damages against one of the accusers. In March 2024, British police obtained a European Arrest Warrant for the Tate brothers over allegations of sexual aggression, and a Romanian court authorised their extradition after the conclusion of the Romanian investigation. Tate and his brother have denied all charges.
In February 2023, the legal team for the Tate brothers confirmed that a cease and desist letter was sent to at least one of the accusers in December 2022, threatening to sue her and her parents for $300 million over defamatory statements.
On 29 December 2022, the police arrested both Tate brothers and two women. All four are suspected of human trafficking and forming an organised crime group, and one of them (unidentified due to Romanian law) is suspected of rape. DIICOT accuses the Tates of having recruited women through the "loverboy" method—which consists of misrepresenting one's intention to commit to a romantic relationship—and having forced them to create explicit content for websites like OnlyFans, as part of an organised crime group the Tates are alleged to have formed in early 2021. DIICOT identified six potential victims. Social media rumours attributed Andrew Tate's arrest to pizza boxes shown in his response video to Greta Thunberg, which Romanian authorities denied.
December 27, 2022
December 28, 2022
As of 5 January 2023, two potential victims had joined the case as civil parties and filed statements against the suspects. On 7 January, one of the Tates' lawyers said that the defense team had still not obtained a copy of the evidence presented by the prosecution to the judge. The lawyer also said that the Tate brothers had not been given an accurate translation during their hearing for the 30-day extension. He requested the opportunity to confront the accusers in court, and said that some of the six potential victims identified by DIICOT had not filed a complaint against the suspects. Two women who have lived with the Tate brothers have publicly defended them, and two of the six alleged victims identified by DIICOT, have denied that they were victimised.
On 20 January 2023, a Romanian court extended the brothers' pre-trial detention until 27 February; the court's reasoning was based on a desire to safeguard the investigation, and avoid the Tates leaving the country. On 25 January, while being taken for questioning at Romania's organised crime unit, Andrew said the case against him was "empty" and told reporters that "they know we have done nothing wrong".
Romanian authorities seized 29 assets, including 15 cars and more than 10 properties, as well as watches and sums of money, that belonged to the Tate brothers or their companies, totaling to almost $4 million. If they are convicted, these assets will be forfeited to the state and used to pay civil and moral damages to any victims. On 14 January 2023, the cars at the Tates' home were transported to a storage location. On 11 December, a Romanian court rejected the request to return assets seized during the investigation. On 8 January 2024, this decision was overturned by the Bucharest's Court of Appeal after successful appeal, with the court ordering a new trial over the seized assets.
A February 2023 survey conducted by Hope not Hate found that eight in ten British males aged 16 and 17 had viewed Tate's content. 45 per cent of British males aged 16–24 had a positive view of him, compared to 1 per cent of British women aged 16 and 17. In September, YouGov data found 26 per cent of men aged 18–29, and 28 per cent of men aged 30–39, agreed with his views on women. Of the 63 per cent of British adults who had heard of Tate, 6 per cent held a positive view, with men making up 12 per cent and women 3 per cent of views, while approximately half had a negative view. Director of policy at Hope not Hate described Tate as a "legitimising force" for misogynistic views and director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition commented it was "hugely concerning", and that the survey demonstrated: "Tate continues to wield influence on a significant proportion of younger men, who say they agree with his views on women, masculinity and how to be a man." The Centre for Countering Digital Hate has previously described Tate's videos as "extreme misogyny".
Tate gained notoriety on social media for promoting a "hyper-masculine, ultra-luxurious lifestyle". According to The Guardian in February 2023, Tate is popular among British teenage boys, who mimic his phrases and philosophies. They reported that "virtually every parent in Britain" had heard of him, and that parents and schoolteachers expressed concern that he was influencing boys to exhibit misogynistic and aggressive behaviour. CNN reported that students as young as middle schoolers have regurgitated his abuse and harassed female classmates. In the UK and Australia, sexual harassment in schools has also been blamed on Tate's influence.
On 4 March 2023, while incarcerated in Romania, Tate's legal team stated "he has a dark spot on his lung, most likely a tumor" following a medical consultation in Dubai, sparking online rumours related to whether he has lung cancer. On 5 March, Tate denied on Twitter that he had cancer.
In an interview with the BBC in June 2023, Tate stated that he was "acting under the instruction of God to do good things" and that:
On 13 June 2023, DIICOT adjusted the charges from human trafficking to "human trafficking in continued form", a more serious charge. One additional victim was identified, bringing the total count to seven. On 20 June, the four accused were indicted on charges of rape, human trafficking, and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women. They continue to deny all charges and remain under investigation concerning money laundering and trafficking of minors. Tate and his supporters also spread various conspiracy theories about the criminal charges. As of January 2024, the case is being heard in the preliminary chamber, prior to a trial date being set. Sky News reported that the allegations include committing "human trafficking in Romania and other countries", including the United States and United Kingdom.
Tate's website offers training courses on accumulating wealth and "male–female interactions". According to the website, he also operated a webcam studio using his girlfriends as the employees. Tate and his brother Tristan started the webcam business, employing as many as 75 webcam models to sell "fake sob stories" to male callers, claiming to have made millions of dollars doing so. He later said that the business model was a "total scam". In August 2023, it was estimated the Hustler's University and The War Room generated $5 million per month from subscriptions. According to the Anti-Defamation League, Tate posted the following lesson to his TikTok account, for the appropriate response if a man is accused of infidelity:
In September 2023, Tate came out in support of Russell Brand after he was accused of sexual assault by multiple women. In November he accused Israel of "genociding" Palestinians and claimed that the Hamas attack on Israel was as "an eye for an eye". In December 2023, during a dispute with Piers Morgan, Tate described conspiracy theorist Alex Jones as a "f****** hero", after his reinstatement on Twitter, previously describing him as "one of the greatest men on the planet".
In January 2024, Tate questioned whether the Nazis were really the "bad guy" in World War II. In March 2024, the ADL reported that Tate "teaches his acolytes that women are inferior and morally deficient beings who are good only for sex and status building, and who deserve to be physically, sexually and emotionally abused", equating his philosophy to that of pick-up artists.
In January 2024, analysis from the Center for Countering Digital Hate found The Real World had generated 450 million views. Another channel, sharing the content, had gained nearly 300 million views, after bypassing social media bans using affiliate marketing schemes.
In January 2024, research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate claimed YouTube had earned up to £2.4 million in advertising revenue from Tate's content, accusing the company of being "happy to continue to turn a blind eye". The figure was described as "wildly inaccurate and overinflated" by the platform, highlighting that the majority of channels were not monetised for such revenue.
On 30 January 2024, the Bucharest Court of Appeal rejected Tate's appeal to relax judicial control measures, after pre-trial restrictions imposed on 18 January were extended for a further 60 days. The restrictions determine that he cannot leave the country.
In March 2024, the UK's Westminster Magistrates' Court issued an arrest warrant against the Tate brothers over allegations of sexual aggression from 2012–2015. The two were detained by the Romanian police on 11 March, after the prosecutor of the Bucharest Court of Appeal ordered them to be detained for a day until the court decided on the execution of the warrant. On 12 March, the Romanian court ruled that the brothers can be extradited to the UK only after the Romanian trial for human trafficking concludes. The Tate brothers "categorically reject all charges".