Born Emory Andrew Tate III, he was the oldest of three children born to his international chess master father and his catering assistant mother.

Originally born and raised in the United States, he moved to Luton, England with his mother following their parent’s divorce.

Andrew Tate was first introduced to a wide UK audience back in 2016 when he became a housemate on Big Brother. He was removed from the house after videos of him whipping a women with a belt came to light, as well as an open rape investigation against him that was later dropped. Both he and the woman claimed the video’s contents were consensual.

However before that, he was widely popular as a professional kickboxer dubbed “King Cobra”. He earned several titles during his career in the sport including the International Kickboxing Federation British belt. By 2012, he was a world champion.

Now, he’s best known as the “King Of Toxic Masculinity” - having gained a huge following on the internet due to his proudly misogynistic views, and right-wing political affiliations.

He has declared himself an “Alpha Male” and has become a leader on a corner of the internet known as the “Manosphere”.

He has appeared on several TV shows and podcasts, claiming that women were “property” of men, that rape victims need to “bear some of the responsibility” and that depression “wasn’t real”.

Working alongside his brother Tristan, he launched an online empire including a webcam model business and selling courses on how to be more masculine via Hustler’s University.

In 2019, they launched the War Room, a private global network that was later central to a BBC investigation.

The BBC claimed the network allegedly taught men to groom and sexually exploit women, including but not limited to removing them from their support unit, getting the man’s name tattooed on them, and making them perform on webcams, pocketing the money for their own.

This was allegedly called the War Room’s PhD course – standing for “Pimpin’ Hoes Degree”.

Tate denied any wrongdoing when approached by the BBC, calling the investigation “another brazen attempt to present one-sided, unverified" allegations against him.

A statement provided by Tate read: "The War Room promotes self-discipline, motivation and confidence building whilst giving members access to thousands of professionals from around the world who encourage personal responsibility and accountability, emphasising the importance of taking ownership of your choices and actions.”

There were over 400 members of the group at the time of the investigation, each paying $8000 a year for access.

In August 2022, he was banned from Instagram, Facebook and YouTube over “dangerous” behaviour and hate speech rules. He was also barred from having a TikTok account.

Despite this, his legions of fans and followers have been uploading content to the sites on his behalf, effectively bypassing Tate’s claims that he was “being silenced”.

He still has an active X (formerly Twitter) account, after it was reinstated following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media site.

Andrew and Tristan Tate, as well as two unknown women, were arrested in Romania in December 2022 for charges including rape, human trafficking, and forming an organised crime group.

While the investigation into the pair had started that April, there is a widespread online theory that Romanian detectives were able to finally track him down thanks to a tweet he shared in an argument with climate activist, Greta Thunberg.

In a bid to antagonise Thunberg, Tate shared a photo of him filling one of his supercars up with petrol, writing: 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.”

She wrote back: “Yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalld**kenergy@getalife.com”

He responded with a video of him in a robe, smoking a cigar and telling someone off camera not to recycle the stack of pizza boxes in front of him.

With his arrest coming days later, many believe the address of the pizza shop visibly seen on the boxes led police to Tate’s location, though this has never been officially verified.

According to Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism unit, they have identified six victims they believe were subject to acts of violence and coercive control, and were sexually exploited.

It is claimed the Tates would lure women to Romania under the guise of pursuing a romantic relationship, only to then be abused and forced to perform pornographic acts.

In March 2024, Bedfordshire Police in the UK also obtained an arrest warrant for the pair for their own investigation into rape and human trafficking.

They will be extradited to the UK after the Romanian case reaches its conclusion.

Both Andrew and Tristan Tate have denied all charges made against them and have vowed to prove their innocence.

The Manosphere is a coined term for a sector of the internet devoted to promoting masculinity – often opposing feminism and encouraging misogyny in the process.

The community largely believe society has a bias against men after the rise of feminism, and aims to reintroduce a “status quo” when it comes to gender roles: with women being subservient to their men, and men maintaining positions of power in business and politics.

Subsects of this community include Men’s Rights Activists, Incels (coined for those ‘involuntarily celibate’), pick-up artists and alpha males.

The communities are more often than not far-right in their views, and have previously launched social media campaigns to bring attention to their cause to the masses.

This includes a widespread sharing of Andrew Tate’s publicly made comments and “Gamergate” – where female online gamers were targeted and harassed over allegations they were “social justice warriors” who were “pushing a feminist political agenda”.

The Manosphere has also been associated with a number of mass shootings in the United States – most notably in 2014, when 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured 14 others in Isla Vista, California.

He left behind a YouTube video and a 137-page manifesto in which he complained women weren’t paying him enough attention and his issues with still being a virgin.

In both the videos and manifesto, Rodger praised his own looks and lamented on why, despite him being rich, women would prefer “inferior men”.

It was later discovered he was a member of several pick-up artist (PUA) groups and subscribed to “Alpha Male” and Men’s Right Activist YouTube channels.