Andrew Tate: A timeline of his rise and fall

The controversial influencer and his brother Tristan are facing an arrest warrant for sexual aggression in the UK. 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. 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.

The young Andrew Tate starts boxing and martial arts training while reportedly also working as a TV producer. Earns his first kickboxing championship when he wins the British ISKA Full Contact Cruiserweight Championship in Derby, going by the name King Cobra.

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. Tate and his brother Tristan begin their first adult webcam business employing lingerie-clad models to engage in chat sessions with men.

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’.”. Wins his second ISKA world title in a 12-round match against Vincent Petitjean. 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. He moves to Bucharest, Romania, with Tristan, setting up home in a heavily-fortified suburban compound and claiming the UK has “gone downhill”.

“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.”.

“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.”.