‘Tate raped and strangled us’ - women talk to BBC

Two women who say they were raped and strangled by the controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate have spoken to the BBC about their experiences.

Another woman has alleged, for the first time, she was raped by Mr Tate’s younger brother, Tristan - also an influencer with millions of followers.

The Tate brothers, aged 37 and 36, currently face charges in Romania of human trafficking and forming an organised group to sexually exploit women. Andrew Tate is also charged with rape.

If found guilty, the two men could be jailed for more than 10 years. They strongly deny the charges against them.

Warning: Contains distressing content and descriptions of sexual violence

Andrew Tate is currently under house arrest in Romania. In addition to the charges he already faces, prosecutors are considering new allegations against him, including having sex with a minor and trafficking underage persons. Both brothers are also being investigated for trafficking 34 more women.

Now, in a new BBC Panorama programme, two British women not involved with the Romanian case against the Tate brothers, have given detailed first-hand accounts of alleged rape and sexual violence by Andrew Tate. The allegations date back at least 10 years, to when Mr Tate was living in Luton.

Another British woman has made a new allegation of rape against Tristan Tate, saying he put his hands around her throat as he did so.

Anna (not her real name) told us she went out with Andrew Tate in Luton in 2013. After a few dates, she says she went back to his house.

“He started kissing me... and he just looked up at the ceiling and said, ‘I’m just debating whether I should rape you or not. Out of the blue he just grabbed me by the throat, smashed me to the back of the bed, strangling me extremely hard.”

Anna says he then raped her.

She says after the attack, Mr Tate sent her disturbing text messages and voice notes about rape and sexual violence.

“Am I a bad person? Because the more you didn’t like it, the more I enjoyed it,” he said in a voice note.

In a text he wrote: “I love raping you.”

Anna says he also tried to pass the strangulation episode off as a joke: “Are you seriously so offended I strangled you a little bit?”

When the BBC asked him about the messages, Mr Tate declined to comment.

In 2014, Anna told Bedfordshire Police about the alleged attack. Two other women made similar allegations, and the investigation was taken over by Hertfordshire Police.

In 2019, a file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, but it was decided there was not enough evidence to bring charges.

Another woman, who we are calling Sienna, describes a similar story.

She says she first met Andrew Tate a decade ago in Luton: “We got on really well and we had a few drinks.”

She says they had what she describes as “a standard one-night stand”.

A few months later, Sienna says she met Mr Tate again.

She claims that on this occasion he attacked her.

“We went to my bedroom... and we started having sex,” she says. “That was when he put his hands around my throat.”

Sienna says she struggled for air, and then lost consciousness. When she came to, she says he was still having sex with her.

“I was absolutely terrified,” she says. “I just remember gasping for air... It was rape.”

In the morning, she says she had a bloodshot eye.

“One of the whites of my eyes had just gone completely red - apparently it's quite common in domestic abuse cases where there's been strangulation.”

A friend of Sienna has confirmed to the BBC that she told him about the incident at the time. He also says he saw her eye injury.

Sienna didn’t go to the police and says she regrets it.

BBC Panorama is aware of a total of five women in the UK who say they were strangled by Mr Tate during sex.

When we interviewed him in June last year, he denied ever having strangled or having had sex with a woman without her consent.

“I know I've never hurt anybody. It's not in my nature to hurt people,” he said.

In the second half of the last decade, Andrew Tate began his rise to online fame.

The self-proclaimed misogynist’s videos on YouTube and TikTok, and posts on Twitter, gained him millions of followers and a worldwide profile.

He preached a message aimed at boys and young men that women should be dominated.

In one video, he said women were “intrinsically lazy” and added: “There’s no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist.”

Panorama - Andrew Tate: accused

Oana Marocico returns to her home country to investigate Andrew and Tristan Tate's Romanian webcam business and speaks to women who claim they’ve been abused by the brothers.

Watch on Monday 9 September on BBC One at 20:00 BST (20:30 in Wales) or on BBC iPlayer (UK only) from 20:00 BST

Mr Tate has been singled out by authorities in the UK for the effect he has had in spreading misogyny online.

His videos also showed off the high-rolling lifestyle he claimed to lead in Romania.

Andrew and Tristan Tate are thought to have moved to the country around 2016.

They had been running a webcamming business in Luton - where women chat and strip online for money.

Romania has one of the largest webcam industries in the world, with over half a million employees in the sector. The brothers’ move there apparently saw the business taking off.

At one point, Andrew Tate claimed he was making £400,000 per month from webcamming and that “75 women worked for him at the peak of it all”.

However, when he spoke to the BBC last year, he downplayed these boasts, claiming they had been exaggerations and lies.

The adult entertainment business is central to the criminal case brought against them in Romania.

Prosecutors allege the brothers were trafficking women into the country - in other words, recruiting them, arranging their transport and providing accommodation in Bucharest for the purpose of exploitation. Two of the women named in the case file were brought to Romania from the UK.

Another British woman, not involved in any of the legal proceedings, told Panorama about her experience of working for the Tates. It is the first time she has spoken publicly.

Daisy (not her real name) says that in 2017 she had been dating Tristan Tate in the UK, when he encouraged her to work for the brothers' webcam business in Bucharest. We have seen evidence that Tristan booked her flight to Bucharest.

Daisy went of her own accord, knowing and agreeing to be involved in the webcamming business. She describes a controlling environment where she and other webcammers lived and worked together.

“The girls had their own rooms, but it wasn't their personal space. Everything was Tristan's and Andrew's, the bedrooms that the girls worked in were also the bedrooms that the brothers would sleep in.”

There were strict rules for all the women, says Daisy with almost every aspect of their lives monitored.

This description is echoed by a Romanian webcam model, who has also spoken to us.

“Raluca” says she was on the Tates’ books in 2021. She claims that “control and manipulation” played a primary role in their business model.

Most of the models working for the Tates “were dating them”, according to Raluca. She adds that some of them were women brought over from the UK.

The Romanian prosecutors say they have statements from three women who describe feeling “controlled” by the brothers. In the case file, some of the women say they were not allowed to leave the house “on their own”.

When Andrew Tate spoke to the BBC last year, he denied such allegations and claimed the women worked for themselves. He said that his role was simply to "help them find a cameraman”.

A few days after arriving in Romania, Daisy says she broke up with Tristan Tate, but she claims it did not stop him trying to have sex with her.

“I told him, ‘no’ 10 to 15 times that I didn’t want to.”

He put his hands around her throat and raped her, she says.

Daisy has not reported her allegation to police.

The BBC has spoken to one of her friends who says that after Daisy returned to the UK she was upset and told him that Tristan Tate had been forceful with her sexually.

We asked Tristan Tate about all the allegations against him - he did not comment.

The Tates’ legal troubles have deepened this year.

As well as the existing charges in Romania, and the new investigation announced last month, they face a number of legal threats elsewhere.

In the UK, Bedfordshire Police have begun extradition proceedings against both brothers on allegations of rape and human trafficking, dating back to 2012-2015. None of these are connected to the women we spoke to.

And in a civil case brought by Devon and Cornwall Police, a magistrate is expected to rule next month on whether the Tates owe millions in unpaid tax on their online businesses.

Sienna and Anna are now suing Andrew Tate, and their case is due to be heard in the High Court in London. Along with two other women, they accuse him of rape and sexual assault. He intends to contest the claims.

We asked Mr Tate about all the latest allegations - he has declined to comment.

Last year he told us: “I look forward to the truth coming out. I look forward to the truth being blasted all over the BBC that Andrew Tate was found not guilty because I've never done anything wrong.”

If you are affected by any of the issues in this story you can contact the BBC Action Line