Who is Andrew Tate and why is he in court?

Andrew Tate has garnered worldwide attention on social media due to his controversial views.

The British-American influencer, 37, was born to chess grandmaster father Emory Tate and mother Eileen Tate, he has a brother named Tristan, 35 and a younger sister.

Tate first lived in Chicago, Illinois, but moved to a council estate in Luton in Bedfordshire as a child, where his mother still resides.

His parents were together but his father was in the air force and absent for long periods of time, Tate has said.

Tate claimed in the past that he does have children, but has never said how many.

After becoming a kickboxing world champion, Tate rose to notoriety in 2016 when he was removed from British TV show Big Brother over a video that appeared to show him hitting a woman with a belt.

Tate said the footage had been edited and was “a total lie trying to make me look bad”.

It was online where he found worldwide fame, reaching millions of followers and becoming the eighth most searched-for person in globally in 2022, due to short clips of him sharing views about women and masculinity.

His commentary garnered lots of attention, particularly among young men.

In 2017, he was banned on Twitter for saying that women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted.

Speaking on the Anything Goes with James English podcast in 2021, Tate said: “I will state right now that I am absolutely sexist and I’m absolutely a misogynist.”

The online personality also previously sparked a war of words with climate activist Greta Thunberg when he shared a picture of himself standing next to a Bugatti and claimed he owned 33 cars.

Tagging Ms Thunberg, he tweeted: “Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions.”

She replied: “Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com.”

Tate has previously been banned by Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube for violating policies.

However, Tate, who often poses while smoking a cigar and showing off flashy cars, has said he is encouraging men to be healthy and masculine.

In an interview with the BBC last year, he said: “I preach hard work, discipline, I’m an athlete, I preach anti-drug, I preach religion, I preach no alcohol, I preach no knife crime, every single problem with modern society I’m against.

“I’m teaching young men to be disciplined, to be diligent, to listen, to train, to work hard, to be exactly like me.”

There are 41 “tenets” on Tate’s website, the first of which is: “I believe that men have the divine imperative to become as capable, powerful, and competent as possible in this life.”

According to his site, Tate has led what is described as a “global community”, called The Real World, in which members are said to be educated and mentored to acquire wealth.

Its online description claims it is designed to “break people free from the Matrix”.

His lawyer Tina Glandian said in March 2023 that he plays an “Andrew Tate character” who says things for “entertainment” and does not intend to be taken seriously.

Appearing on Piers Morgan Uncensored in 2022, Tate said he was “absolutely not” a misogynist.

The influencer also said that “overly emotional men are dangerous” and that teaching a man to act on their feelings produces school shooters and rapists.

Tate and his brother, Tristan, are charged with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in Romania after being arrested in the country’s capital in December 2022 alongside two Romanian women.

The brothers were jailed and had some of their luxury cars and assets seized before they were released under house arrest.

They were later able to leave their home but were made to stay in Romania.

In December 2023, Tate had his request to visit his mother in hospital in the UK rejected by a Romanian court after she suffered a heart attack.

All four deny the allegations and a trial will take place.

Following the conclusion of legal proceedings, Tate and his brother will be extradited to the UK after Bedfordshire Police secured a European arrest warrant for allegations of rape and human trafficking in a separate case.

The allegations, which the two brothers “unequivocally deny”, date back to 2012-2015.