If you use social media you’ve probably come across Andrew Tate in the last few days. The former YouTube star has had quite the week - first hitting headlines for his high-profile spat with Greta Thunberg in which she questioned the size of his manhood after he boasted about his vast collection of gas-guzzling cars, before he was arrested at his luxury villa in Romania as part of a human trafficking and rape investigation on Thursday, December 29. But who is he?
Tate, 36, who was born in Washington DC but raised in Luton, was a professional kickboxer in his teens and 20s between 2005 and 2014 - winning two International Sport Kickboxing Association (ISKA) championships during his brief career in the sport. After leaving professional sport he rose to fame on several social media platforms including Twitter and Youtube - before he was then banned from all of them for repeated misogynistic posts. His Twitter profile has since been reinstated following Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform.
Hungry for fame, Tate appeared on reality show Big Brother in 2016 but he was kicked off the show early after a video emerged allegedly showing him hitting a woman with a belt and asking her if she knew why she was being beaten. She later said the relationship between them and the actions within the video were consensual and posted a selfie with Tate to prove they were friends. During his time on Big Brother Tate gained further notoriety for his sexist and misogynistic views.
