Andrew Tate Accused of Violence and Coercion by Ex-Girlfriend

HomeNewsAndrew Tate Accused of Violence and Coercion by Ex-Girlfriend

A British woman claims to have been in a relationship with controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate, who encouraged her to work for his webcam company before becoming controlling and violent.

“It’s difficult because I don’t feel like a victim; all of my decisions were made of my [own] free will. He didn’t stuff me in a bag, throw me in the back of a truck, and drive me there “Sophie explains.

“But he was well aware of what he was doing. When does emotional or psychological manipulation give way to being forced to do something?”

Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are being held in Romania while police investigate rape and human trafficking allegations.

Prosecutors allege the pair recruited victims by seducing them and falsely claiming they wanted to have a relationship – which police have dubbed “the lover-boy method”. Victims were then compelled or coerced into working in their adult entertainment chat rooms.

Sophie, her alias, claims that this is exactly what happened to her. She is currently assisting prosecutors with their investigation.

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Tate approached her “completely out of the blue” on Facebook, she said on BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 and was very charming.

“He was sort of luring me into believing that he was someone I could trust and who genuinely wanted to connect with me,” she says.

She describes their interactions as typical of people getting to know each other, with no red flags. After communicating with him online, she agreed to visit his home in Bucharest, Romania’s capital.

“I was at a point in my life where everything felt a little boring and dull, and the idea of an adventure just seemed appealing,” she says.

Sophie visited Tate in Romania regularly as their relationship progressed. He told her he wanted her to be his girlfriend but then asked her to work for him.

“‘You should do it, you’d make a fortune, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to,’ he’d said a couple of times. ‘I make enough money,’ she says.

“But he was always reminding me that the option was there and that progressed into, ‘If you love me, you would do it. If you love me, you’d do it… we can make all this money. And over time, just by chipping away at me, he eventually got me to think, ‘Maybe he’s right, maybe I should do it.'”

Sophie had previously worked in the adult entertainment industry, so she was open to the idea. But she claims she felt coerced and was afraid of losing him if she refused.

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Tate describes his webcam business in a now-deleted page on his website – his account is similar to Sophie’s in many ways.

He describes his job as follows: “To meet a girl, go on a few dates with her, and sleep with her… get her to fall in love with me to the point where she’ll do anything I say.” “And then get her on webcam so we can become rich together,” the video continues.

He claims that over the decade he has been running his studio, more than half of his employees have been his girlfriends, and none have previously worked in the adult entertainment industry. This is contradicted by Sophie’s account.

Sophie claims she earned around £800 for six hours of work, with Tate taking 50%. According to industry representatives in Romania, this is not uncommon for webcam studios.

Sophie claims Tate’s treatment of her has deteriorated over time. She claims he became increasingly controlling, threatening her with cash fines if she left the house without his permission, and that he became violent.

“There was some debate… “He held me up against the wall, slapped me hard, and then said, ‘you whore,'” she says.

She went on to say that rough sex had evolved into something she had not agreed to.

“The majority of the violence was sexual, which he enjoys. He enjoys feeling completely in control of the woman as if he could end her life at any moment. “That’s a huge sexual turn-on for him,” she says.

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“I was so focused on just wanting to please him and make him happy. But, in retrospect, he used to strangle me to the point where I passed out once, and I believe he panicked because he realized he’d gone too far.”

The BBC has seen messages from Tate and listened to voice recordings that appear to support her claims of controlling behavior.

Sophie claims she left the relationship after realizing that “constantly feeling inferior to him” was not right.

“I realized I couldn’t live like that any longer and that it wasn’t normal. “I just needed to get away from it,” she says. “Remember being at work and feeling completely overwhelmed, and I’d never felt such darkness.”

She describes Tate as a “very complex man” who was not the persona he portrayed online, where he is known for his high-volume rants, often filmed while smoking a cigar or surrounded by his supercars.

“He’s very manipulative, he lacks any kind of empathy. “He is a narcissist, he is 100% narcissistic,” she says.

“I don’t believe he’s emotionally capable of feeling love for anyone or anything, including his family and brother – there’s just nothing there. In the part of our brains where we feel love, compassion, and empathy… [in his] it’s just a hole with nothing in it.”

The BBC contacted Tate via his lawyer, but Mateea Petrescu, who handles media requests for the Tate brothers, said they would not comment on the allegations.

Six women have been identified as potential victims of human trafficking by Romanian investigators. However, two of the women publicly denied any mistreatment by the Tate brothers last month, and other women have spoken positively about their time with Tate.

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However, Sophie claims that some of these women were genuinely well-treated by Tate, while others are still under his control.

“He’s always one step ahead of everyone,” she says. “He will be mindful of the fact he needs as many glowing reviews as he does negative ones to defend himself.

“Equally, there are going to be girls that will be so infatuated and brainwashed by him that they are never going to say a bad word. There will be some who speak out of fear because he is threatening.”

Police have yet to file charges against the brothers, who have been detained with two Romanian women since December 29. They have both denied the allegations leveled against them.

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