Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate, brothers who have made millions off their work as online “manosphere” influencers, were arrested in Miami on Saturday by federal marshals in connection with new criminal charges of rape and sex trafficking in England. 

British prosecutors are now seeking to extradite them; the pair hold both British and American citizenship. They are being detained “pending ongoing legal proceedings,” per a statement from British police.

The brothers have been in the United States since late February 2025, when they arrived in Florida by private plane after Romanian authorities lifted travel restrictions against them. The Tates have been indicted in Romania on a variety of charges, including forming an organized criminal group to sexually exploit women in Romania, the United States, United Kingdom and other countries; human trafficking; the trafficking of minors; sex with a minor and money laundering. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape. 

According to a statement issued on Sunday by Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service, the new charges faced by the two are related to alleged encounters with four different women between July 2010 and August 2017. Andrew Tate specifically has been charged with seven counts of rape, three counts of sex trafficking, three counts of assault, and 19 charges related to possesion of sexual images of children and “extreme pornography.” Tristan Tate faces two charges of rape, one charge of sexual assault and three counts of sex trafficking. 

An attorney for the Tate brothers posted a statement on Twitter on Sunday saying that the two are innocent of the 59 combined criminal charges now being brought against them by the British government. 

The 19th explains who the Tate brothers are and why this latest chapter has brought them back into the news.  

Who is Andrew Tate?

Andrew Tate, a self-described misogynist and “king of toxic masculinity,” is a 38-year-old former championship kickboxer who first gained broad attention when he appeared on the British reality show “Big Brother” in 2016. Tate first came under scrutiny for past homophobic and racist Tweets, which were discovered while he was on the show. He was kicked off the show before the season ended; initial reports said his removal happened because a video of him beating a woman with a belt surfaced during filming, though Tate and the woman said the beating was consensual. Later reporting indicated that Tate was removed from the show after producers learned of an ongoing investigation by British authorities over an alleged rape. (The case was ultimately closed in 2019, with no charges filed against him.) 

By 2022, Tate had become an Internet phenomenon, building notoriety and accumulating extraordinary wealth through his social media work. Tate founded Hustler’s University, which charged a monthly fee to teach young men how to make money outside of traditional employment and was eventually shut down under multiple accusations of it being a pyramid scheme; The Real World, an app-based platform offering instruction to teenage boys on how to become “real men,” which Google and Apple removed from their app stores in 2023; and The War Room, a self-described “global network” intended to “free the modern man from socially induced incarceration” that later faced accusations of grooming women into sex work through its “Pimpin’ Hoes Degree” course, aimed at teaching men to manipulate and socially isolate women.

In 2024, Tate also launched a meme coin called DADDY — “for the patriarchy,” he wrote, adding, “make me a fucking sandwich females.”

Tate built a reputation as a key influence in the “manosphere” community, vocal and ever-present with his far-right political views and personal ideology about women’s inferiority to men. He has claimed that sexual assault victims bear the responsibility for what has been done against them and has said that women become the property of their husbands after marriage.  

Tate has maintained a massive online presence throughout his time in the public eye. He has over 10.8 million followers on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, which banned him multiple times before being bought by Elon Musk in 2022 and changing its name. Musk reinstated Tate’s X account when he assumed ownership of the platform. 

In a 2021 podcast interview, Tate boasted, “You can’t slander me because I will state right now that I am absolutely sexist and I’m absolutely misogynist, and I have fuck you money and you can’t take that away.”

Why were Andrew and Tristan Tate in Romania?

The Tate brothers moved to Romania from the United Kingdom. At the time, Andrew Tate talked about it being less likely that he would face rape charges in Romania because of the evidentiary standards there. He also criticized the #MeToo movement, grounding his criticism on his belief that women could ruin a man’s life on a whim if they so desired. 

The United States embassy in Romania received a report in April 2022 that an American citizen was being held against her will at a property owned by Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan. Romanian police raided the property and a webcam studio run by the brothers, finding four women, two of whom said they were being held against their will. Several months later, the Romanian government arrested and charged the brothers and their two female accomplices on charges of human trafficking and forming an organized crime group. 

In August 2024, Romanian officials expanded their investigation into the Tates to involve allegations from 35 other women; new allegations included human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, influencing statements and money laundering. 

What has the Trump administration said about the Tate brothers?

Reporting by The New York Times in December detailed a close relationship between the Tate brothers and prominent right-wing political figures, relationships that helped enable their release from Romania last year. According to this reporting, the Tates received word from someone within the Trump administration directly that the administration was involved in securing their release. 

Andrew Tate has developed close relationships with both Donald Trump Jr. and Barron Trump, two of President Donald Trump’s sons. According to the New York Times, Barron is an admirer of Andrew Tate and connected with him over Zoom to meet in 2024; during the call they discussed, among other things, their shared perception that the Romanian government was attempting to silence the brothers for their beliefs.

According to the New York Times, the White House has said it has no knowledge of and is not involved in the Tates’ legal affairs. They did not reply to a request for comment from the Times about the Tates’ relationship with President Trump’s sons. 

The Tates had been under house arrest since their detainment by Romanian officials in 2022.  The Financial Times reported that the Trump administration had asked Romanian officials to return the Tates’ passports to them and allow them to travel while the criminal case against them proceeds in court. 

Additionally, Paul Ingrassia, a former Tate attorney, is now a White House liaison for the Department of Justice. Ingrassia has previously said that the Tate brothers were “sacrificed on the altar of the Matrix under the banner of egregious crimes they never committed.”