From the dark corners of the web, an emerging mindset I.
Am a loser if also we know wouldn't pay me either.
A hidden world of resentment, cynicism, anger against women at a deadly tipping.
Point in Cells will be added to the Terrorism Guide.
I see literally zero hope.
This is in Cells a production of KT Studios and iHeart Podcasts, Season one, Episode eight. I hit you because I love you.
He controls her, he owns her, and anything that causes a reaction in him is frankly her fault.
Listen, I haven't been convicted of anything, and there's lots of allegations against me, that they're just out to get me, that they don't really have anything on me.
It continued to choke plaintiff harder and harder, making plaintiff nearly lose consciousness.
I'm Courtney Armstrong, a producer at Kat's Studios, with Stephanie Leidecker, Gabriel Castillo, Connor Powell, Carolyn Miller. In episode six, we explored the Manosphere, a sprawling digital network that claims to help men navigate dating, fitness, and fatherhood. However, it often spreads to hostility and misogyny. Andrew Tate is widely known as the king of the manosphere, and we touched on
his empire from Hustle University to his webcam businesses. We decided to take a deeper dive into who Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are, how their upbringing shaped them, as well as legal allegations piling up against them. Please note, despite legal action pending in three countries, neither Andrew Tate nor Tristan Tate have been convicted of any of the crimes discussed in this episode. Here's Stephanie.
I always find it interesting that the Tape Brothers are considered misogynists because, frankly, their background wouldn't suggest that that's how this would really turn out. The Tape Brothers were, by their own admission, raised in poverty.
Andrew Tate was born in Washington, d c. At the Walter Reed Army Medical Center on December fourteenth, nineteen eighty six. His father was a black man named Emery Tait, who was an international master of chess and a highly competitive figure known for his aggressive playing style. His mother, Eileen, is a white englishwoman who worked as a catering assistant. Andrew's brother, Tristan, was born in Chicago on July fifteenth, nineteen eighty eight, and they have a younger sister who
is an attorney and lives a private life. Here again Stephanie, followed by crime analyst Body Moven.
Mom and dad divorced in nineteen ninety seven, and they basically split time between the United Kingdom and the United States.
His dad lived like a pretty nomadic lifestyle, surviving on tournament weddings from chess tournaments. He didn't really have a stable life.
He was a little anti regime and they refer to him as being very ambitious, but clearly not that ambitious because they were growing up in poverty in a different country and not seeing their co parent hardly at all.
So it's just interesting to me that Dad is getting that large of a voice in their heads given the fact that they were being raised by a single mom who's working her way to put them through school and frankly doing a nice job of it, and they say very loving things of her, yet their worldview on women is really low.
Andrews saw his father, Emory Tate about once a year, but he's been a hugely influential presence in his life. Here's a podcast excerpt of Tate speaking about his father with therapist David Sutcliffe. Was your father present with you?
No, that didn't bother them at all.
It didn't bother you.
No, he had things to do.
I didn't understand.
You know your history, that you were raised by seeing your mother. Your father wasn't around, so you see him once a year about that, Yeah, but I always understood he's very busy and has a lot to do, like you understand, like a little boy. I think a little boy might think, why where's daddy?
I want daddy, I'm here alone with mom?
And he might be right because some fathers may not care. But my father did care. He was just very busy. But it must have been confusing for you. No, not for the little boy. No, I never for a second felt like he didn't care about me.
Ever, and that on some level, some of what you're doing in the world is motivated by that, like wanting to win the love of your father.
I think that's semi true, because I believe I have a duty to my ancestors. I have the last name Tate, it was bestowed upon me, and I have responsibilities to live up to the last name Tate. I do believe I have a duty to my ancestors. So is that trying to win the love of my father? Perhaps I never felt unloved by my father ever. In fact, I would argue I had the best father on earth. I never felt like I was owed all of his time. I can earn his time, or that I can't have as much of it as I want.
You have to earn his time. That was a son should have to earn his father's time.
Yeah, why not.
Andrew Tate often says that his dad taught him if you can control your mind, you can control the world, and drilled into them that intelligence is dominance, and that the only currency that matters is cunning, being cunning and smart.
And how to beat the system essentially right.
So, how to bend, how to be a.
Hustler, how to be a hustler and hustle other young men out of cash that you think you deserve more of. And by the way, it's working because they've obviously accumulated a ton of wealth. Now the other side to that is, look, these are guys that pulled themselves out of poverty. According to Andrew Tate himself, they literally grew up in poverty
in the United Kingdom, in England. The family lived on the Marsh Farm estate in Luton, an area Andrew described as quote the worst area of the worst town end quote and listen. The family received welfare and the mother worked tirelessly to provide for them. Andrew has discussed their humble beginnings on social media many many times, claiming that his family were the lowest echelon of life.
Andrew Tape began his career as a professional kickboxer in two thousand and eight and was ranked seventh best light heavyweight kickboxer in the UK by the International Sports Karate Association.
He won several world titles and reportedly earned modest purses, not enough to make him wealthy, but enough to build a reputation. And during this time he began teaching kickboxing and self defense lessons, both personal and line, which basically grew his coaching business. And I think this is where he got the model for his lifestyle coaching because it
was pretty successful. He leveraged early YouTube and forums to promote a persona of discipline and dominance, which laid the foundation for his later online empire.
Body continues explaining how in cells in particular tend to view the tape Brothers. It's new.
It's kind of a divided look on the Tape Brothers. Specifically, some in cells really admire Andrew take, you know, the alpha male. I think a lot of them can see that the Tape Brothers are kind of like proof that this hyper masculine confidence and physical dominance can overcome what they perceive as an unfair dating hierarchy. But I think most in cells have resentment towards the Tate Brothers. They often accuse them of being fake alpha males who monetize
on the lonely man's epidemic. Right, the Tape Brothers basically are red pill mano sphere influencers, and in cells typically subscribe to the black pill ideology. And I think that they sell like this hopism. They sell hope, and I think in cells can view the Tape Brothers as two men who busted their way out of this loneliness epidemic. But that was never true. The Tape Brothers were never in cells, but they sell it. They speak to in cells, and they speak to the reason that the in cells
are such failures of life. And I think that in cells who do listen to the Tape Brothers rhetoric have hoped that if they purchase these courses, they're going to escape it as well.
Here's Louise, who identifies as a black pilled in cell. He's twenty two years old, lives in southern California and has been in the in cell community since he was about nineteen. Louise talks about the dichotomy between the Tape Brothers and in cells.
So, yeah, in cells were former pickup artists, which is very interesting because actually research on that, there's a paper by some guy called Devolving the Manosphere, like some academic guy. That's when he found that on pickup artist forums. When Internet traffic and user bases were going down, on insel forums they were going up. So there's a pickup artist
to in cell pipeline. So you can imagine like a young man who's struggling with women goes to pick up artistry, learns cold approach and nagging and quino and all that bullshit they do, all those like stupid when it belt of tactics that they use doesn't work, and then boom they become an insuell. And I think that's very important because people, for example, like red pill people call those guys in cells. They'd be like. People call Andrew Tate
an insull like insults. Hate all those I hate those people. Those people suck insults. It's very specific, it's a very very specific community. It's not red Pill, it's not none of those guys. It's not a guy who hates women. Look, I hate to say this. There's plenty of guys out there who hate women and they do just fine. You know, that's just the unfortunate reality. Okay, we don't live in some just world and there are plenty of guys who don't hate women and their virgins.
M let's stop here for a break. We'll be back in a moment.
M hm.
We spoke about Andrew Tate's Hustler University and other man camps in a previous episode, but wanted to look into how his webcam business came to be, as well as legal allegations surrounding them. It's important to note that Andrew Tate denies all the following allegations. Here's investigative journalist Connor Powell.
Andrew Tate in twenty sixteen was an unknown social media influencer until he landed on a pretty big show in the UK called Big Brother UK. During that time, the producers of The Big Brother all found out that the Bedfordshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK had investigated Andrew Tate after two women in Luden, England, accused him of rape and physical assault, and that sort of ended his appearance on this show. It did two things.
On one hand, he's now dealing with these accusations of rape and sexual assault, but now he's famous across England and the United Kingdom and really the world at this time. So as soon as these accusations appear, one of the other things that comes out is a video of Andrew Tate physically abusing a woman, beating her, talking, just saying really vile things to her.
Here's an excerpt from that video. The voice you hear is Andrew Tates. In the video, we see the back of a woman pointing out bruises on her lower half.
Show the camera your tattoo, Tell the camera I beat you when you don't do as I say? Why are you getting hit?
Why are you getting beaten?
Do as I say?
Now? Andrew Tait has claimed since that time that he did nothing wrong and that the video was a private game taken out of context, and you know, he said back in twenty sixteen that he would never hurt anyone against their will, But that doesn't quite square with what the alleged victim actually told Vice News a couple of years later. She claimed that they had told the police everything at first, and that her feeling was that the police believed her, but then nothing happened. The police in
the United Kingdom don't charge him with anything. But then a few years later, in twenty twenty three, Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are now living in Romania, and for several years their online personality is growing. They're selling sex, They're selling fast cars, money, guns. It's all backed up with sort of misogynistic type language about how women are just there to serve men. And Andrew Tate has sort of cracked the code of what it is to be a real man.
In December of twenty twenty two, the Romanian police rate Andrew and Tristan Tate's compound and caressed it's a late night operation and they storm the villa. The brothers are arrested on human trafficking, rape and forming an organized criminal unit.
They find money, they find guns, They find weapons all over the house. They also find these surveillance video cameras where Andrew and Tristan are accused of basically running a sex ring where these women are forced to perform sexual acts on camera. The accusation is that these acts were against their will, that they weren't willing participants because they weren't able to leave this compound, that Andrew and Tristan
were essentially holding them there, and that's the accusation. And this is when Andrew Tate really begins to deal with some serious legal problems, and this twenty fifteen case is brought back up as sort of, look, there's precedent, There is accusations of assault and rape that stem from years before. So that twenty fifteen case, which is wrapped up in twenty sixteen with no charges, then becomes part of a twenty twenty three case in Romania.
Here's a clip from an appearance Andrew Tate did on a podcast called Fit and Fresh. He's talking about one of the arrests.
I was like, who are you They're going to arrest for a suspicion of assault of this dumb hope, Like.
They didn't bom gonna protect.
I'm a knife guy.
Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested and detained, their passports taken. They're now facing allegations of human trafficking, one counter rape, and being part of an organized criminal group.
Connor continues, what the Romanian prosecutors and in the country start accusing him of doing is essentially using this lover boy method. And the idea behind this lover boy method is that Andrew tate women into his compound, into his world with the promise of a relationship or modeling work and then coercing them into producing explicit content and dressing online,
doing sex acts online. But the money that they make while living in Romania while running this sex trafficking organization, essentially is when the money really explodes for them, and six women actually come forward and say that this was happening to them, and they're using these women to perform these sex acts on camera, they're videoing it, they're putting it out there on the Internet to subscribers, and the
amount of money that at their disposal just explodes. They go from being wealthy and rich to living extravagant lifestyles where they can just do anything, and it's all built on the back of these women that they're exploiting.
All the while Andrew take continues online appearances spreading his message that women should submit to men.
In the past famously said I am absolutely sexist and I'm absolutely a misogynist.
The woman must.
Learn that her man is an iron mountain and the easiest path is to obey.
Any other kind of resistance simply doesn't work.
The investigation into the Tape Brothers expands further still as authorities arrest two women who are part of Tate's inner circle. Again, Connor Powell.
You often see there's one or two women who are helping to recruit other women into this sex trafficking ring, and that's essentially what we see with these two other women. After a year of negative headlines and being arrested and essentially being detained in Romania, the Tape Brothers, they go
on the offensive. They launched this sort of global media offensive around the world, claiming to be politically persecuted and that the Romanian prosecutors are essentially attacking them for their political views.
Andrew and Tristan Tate takes to social media x Rumble podcasts, all with the message of standing up for men around the world and fighting what they call the war on men and the war on free speech, and so.
You've got this entire debate going on about what it is to be a young man, what it is to be able to have free speech. They deny all the charges, They repeat the claim that these women were all consenting partners and that they were fabricating their stories. But more importantly, they don't just make these claims. The people who follow Andrew and Tristan Tate they repeat these claims. And so the way that the innocent claims are echoed across all of social media, it just rrupts.
I think it's extremely important that we stop allowing media spin, wrap up smears, lies, or carefully constructed narratives from George Soros funded operations trying to destroy the reputations of good people who have no intention to do anything other than follow They.
Had claimed, essentially that the Matrix was attacking them, a reference to the movie The Matrix, that there's this sort of hidden global network that was attacking the Tape Brothers because of their support for male masculinity and their support for free speech. And they see a real surge in popularity around this time, and this campaign forms their response to these charges, and it becomes a very effective response
public relations wise. The Romanian authorities hit back and in August of twenty twenty four they opened new criminal charges and an investigation in the Tristan and Andrew Tat.
The new accusations allege that not only were they trafficking adults, but now they're human trafficking miners. There's also account of having intercourse with the miner, tampering with witnesses, and money laundering.
Andrew Tate's response at this time is that these accusations are recycled smear campaign against them, and that they're sort of that the Romanian authorities were just desperate to keep the circus going. So Andrew Tate is telling his followers, you can't believe the authorities. They failed with the previous attempts and so now they have to level up the
attacks on me. And this is a really effective response for a lot of his supporters around the world, and so he's using this delay, these types of investigations to build the case publicly for him in terms of his
defense that listen, I haven't been convicted of anything. There's lots of allegations against me that they're just out to get me, that they don't really have anything on me, and that becomes a really effective response for a lot of his supporters, which is, you know, if he was actually guilty of something, he'd be convicted, but he's on
home arrest and detention in Romania. He's not allowed to go anywhere, and so for a lot of people, a lot of his supporters, it really does look like he's just being persecuted in Romania and that this is all sort of a fake accusation against him. And you know, he's really used that well in terms of his defense, because it's almost ten years of accusations but no convictions.
After several years of being on home arrest in Romania, the Tape Brothers are allowed to travel to the United States, where they are also citizens. In February of twenty twenty five, the brothers touchdown in Florida to much fanfare. Here's a clip from WPLG Local ten.
Now, we're going to go out.
To Fort Lauderdale International Airport where the Tape Brothers are just leaving the airport.
We understand.
Maybe we'll listen and see if we can hear what they're saying.
All the things that go around about us on the internet We've yet to be convicted of any crime in our lives. Ever, we have no criminal record anywhere on the planet.
Ever.
Our case was dismissed on the nineteenth of December in Romania under the Biden administration, and our prosecutor recently decided, because we have no active indictment in court, to let us go and return. This is the democratic society. It's supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, as my brother.
And I are. Social media really lights up, hailing the brothers as symbols of resilience, of masculinity, and of free speech. Andrew Tate is posting photos of him with an American flag with the caption that says freedom isn't granted by governments, It's taken back by strong men. Welcome to a new era. And then Tristan Tate, you know, follows up as essentially saying, you know, they tried to destroy us, they tried to
destroy Trump, but the truth always wins. It isn't too long after they arrive in Florida that the state of Florida opens up a criminal investigation into the Tate brothers, and a couple days later, Andrew and Tristan Tate become the subjects of a new criminal investigation launched by the Florida Attorney General's office, and you immediately get pushed back on the Tate brothers in Florida by Governor DeSantis and a bunch of other Republican leaders at Attorney General's office.
This morning, Florida's Attorney General opening a criminal investigation into American brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are charged with human trafficking in Europe. The Florida ag saying, based on a thorough review of the evidence, I've directed the Office of Statewide Prosecution to execute search warrants and issue subpoenas in the now act of criminal investigation into the Tate brothers.
This kind of puts the Tate brothers on notice that, you know, America may not be the safest place for them right now. And they release a statement saying that it's a politically motivated fishing expedition, but they're now facing another investigation in the United States. It's in Florida. It's
a place where they thought they would be fine. They returned to the US thinking that they were, you know, essentially going to be granted the freedom to move around the United States that they weren't having and didn't have in Romania. Governor Ron DeSantis even goes so far as saying that the Tate Brothers are not welcome in Florida, calling them self promoting degenerates hiding behind the masculinity branding. At the same time, President Trump is condemning Romania for
their treatment of the Tate brothers on social media. But it's not too long after that that the Tate brothers decide that they need to get out of Florida.
Let's stop here for another break. We'll be back in a moment. In addition to criminal accusations, Andrew Tate is also facing multiple civil suits. In March of twenty twenty five, Brianna Stern filed suit in Los Angeles. Brianna is a model and social media influencer who allegedly dated Andrew Tate for ten months. Here's body Movin followed by Stephanie.
So she's the model. She gets on a flight from Los Angeles. She goes to Romania to do this cryptocurrency motion.
He hands selects her and things move along really naturally. He constantly is texting her. He's actually sending her poems. One that says specifically, this is a quote of one of the poems Across the Seas, Across the Skies, two pookies live with loving ties, one in La where palm trees sway, the other in Bucharest, far away, though miles apart. They laugh, in play, with calls and texts to fill each day. Again, this guy's coming off like everything is
perfectly normal. They were affectionate, He seemed generous and generally invested in her.
He was love bombing her. Andrew Tait was love bombing her, and he insisted they use these encryptid messages like signal. He told her he was very powerful and these messages need to be secret.
So do you think the reason that he was actually doing things so secretly was that he didn't want his kindness or his sweetness to be shared with the general public.
That's wild, she tells us. He was never openly affectionate around others, never wanting any other man to see him being loving to a woman, because that ruins his whole manosphere and also male narrative, the.
Fact that maybe under the surface he's showing kindness and sweetness and softness, but doesn't want anybody else to know it is is incredibly manipulative, very quickly. It goes from being white picket fence possibilities to your point body love bombing excessively, lots of secrets. And then one day he decides, frankly, without even her permission, according to her, that they are an item. She will be faithful, she will report in,
she will be at his beck and call. But he is not held to the exact same standard, in fact, quite the opposite.
He promised her financial security and listen, that's pretty attractive to a lot of people, right, being taken care of. So a few months into the relationship, she finds out about the Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate backgrounds and becomes aware of all the allegations against them, and she tells Tristan's girlfriend at the time, she says, we would ask each other, are you sure they didn't do this? We would always come to the conclusion that no, there's no
way they could have done this. They're not monsters, They're not capable of that. But over time, obviously I started to see that side, which is interesting because slowly but surely, Andrew Tate and Tristian Tate's masks are slipping and little by little you start giving things up. Right, he starts asking her for her social media passwords. He's demanded she handed them over and download a tracking app so he can see where she is at all times. This is
who he is, This is who he preaches. Who he is now the real Andrew Tate is showing himself and it's becoming a red flag for her.
And he's showing signs of aggression, even if that didn't seem at all possible when she first met him. Yeah, that's the stick. Allegedly, that's the grooming process. Allegedly your best foot forward, best shiny self, the masking. But eventually that wears off.
He's starting to get kind of demanding and say really really awful things to her, and he's blaming it on her. In fact, the lawyers wrote that in their complaint this is a quote. Like many abusers, Tate would often tell the plaintiff that his outbursts were her own fault.
Because he controls her, he owns her, and anything that causes a reaction in him is frankly her fault.
At this point, she's starting to become like, Okay, what have I done? Have I gotten two in over my head was I swept away, but she was too scared to say anything or leave. Because Andrew Tate, She's realizing that he truly is a powerful man. In fact, he told her Trump is going to help me his legal problems in Romania. Trump is going to help me. I guess what he did then?
According to her, he basically said, if you try to leave, or if you step out of line, I'm going to rape and or kill you. Where do you go from there?
Brianna Stern out what she alleges happened on the day of her attack. The details are important as they show what an intimidating figure Tate appeared to be. This guy is a big deal. Imagine this.
He flies to Los Angeles from Romania and then he like basically tweets, all right, I'm in Los Angeles. Let the criminal charges begin. I mean think of the Cajonis right like he's putting it out there. Then he has a meeting with Kanye West right before. So from an outsider looking in, this guy's running the world and is confident and is here to play.
She says.
He's screaming at her. She says, I beat you because I love you and your mind Why wouldn't I be able to hit you? And by the way, this correlates with text message screenshots that she's providing.
I have the text in front of me right now. This is Tate saying you need to be hit to his girlfriend. She says, why I didn't like that? What did I do? He says, you deserve it if you were mine. Why wouldn't I be able to hit you? You talk too much?
More?
So I beat you. I will hit you today, but I love you.
Why the name calling? Do you understand? Because I want to beat the fuck out of you and you will give me a child this year, bitch. I mean, even just saying this out loud sounds absurd. I mean, even as I'm reading this, I have a cold chill. But imagine getting those texts.
So the suit continues and it says this. The plaintiff began crying and begging for him to stop, and he would not. It continued to choke plaintiff harder and harder, making plaintiff nearly lose consciousness. I mean, imagine your boyfriend choking you and all the while saying it's because I love you.
Here's another text exchange. I really love hitting you it's very good for me and you. It's relaxing too, I think, and she says, pooky, no I cry.
She claims that he would not be able to climax sexually unless he verbally degraded her to the point of feeling worthless and crying. Plaintiff protested and never stop crying and begging Tate to stop. However, her cries and pleas only led to Tate hitting her harder. The plaintiff protested and never stopped crying and begging Tate to stop. However, her cries and pleas only led to Tate hitting her harder.
Her cries appeared to be what he wanted, what he needed to climax, the sick fetish of a disturbed man, and this is in the lawsuit.
The civil suit is ongoing, as are all of the allegations against Andrew and Tristan Tate from the UK to Romania to Florida again. Neither Tate brother has been convicted of any of the crimes discussed in this episode. The Tatee brothers say they're persecuted, not predators. Their supporters say there's a war on masculinity. Prosecutors say the evidence tells another story. What is clear is their influence millions of young men hearing that control is love and violence is strength.
Only a small number will act on it, but he will internalize it. Next time we dig into the world of looksmaxing, it's an economy of insecurity, from jawline math to paid fixes and the boys and men who buy in. For more information on the case and relevant photos, follow us on Instagram at KT Underscore Studios. In Cells is produced by Stephanie Leideger, Gabriel Castillo and me Courtney Armstrong. Additional producing by Connor Powell and Caroline Miller, Editing by
Jeff Tooi music by Vanikore Studios. In Cells is a production of KT Studios and iHeart Podcasts. For more podcasts like this, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.