In a, Andrew Tate defended his reputation and denied encouraging misogyny. confrontational BBC interview.
He was confronted by the BBC with a number of allegations, including specific ones of rape, human trafficking, and exploiting women, for which Romanian prosecutors are looking into him. He denied all of them.
When questioned about whether his divisive opinions of women were harmful to young people, the influencer asserted that he was a "force for good" and that he was "acting in accordance with God's command to do good things.".
Since being released from Romanian police custody in April and placed under house arrest, this was Mr. Tate's first television interview with a major network.
Despite having a sizable online following and frequently expressing his distrust of traditional media, Mr. Tate's opinions have not yet been directly challenged in an interview like this.
He agreed to our interview without imposing any restrictions.
He disregarded the testimony of specific women who are a part of the ongoing investigation and have accused him of rape and exploitation.
Additionally, he called another woman who the BBC had earlier this year, who was interviewed undercover, "imaginary" and claimed that the BBC had created her.
In order to protect her identity, the woman in question went by the alias Sophie on BBC Radio 4's File on Four. She revealed that she followed Mr. Tate to Romania because she thought he was in love with her. There, she claimed, she was coerced into doing webcam work and getting Mr. Tate's name permanently inked on her body.
Mr. Tate told the BBC when asked about Sophie's testimony: "I'm doing you the favor as legacy media, giving you relevance, by speaking to you. And I'm telling you right now about Sophie, a fictional character created by the BBC who lacks a face. She is an unknown person. I know. " .
Sophie is currently assisting Romanian prosecutors with their inquiry.
I also discussed with him the worries of educators, senior police officers, and advocates for human rights regarding the impact of his opinions.
These worries include statements made by the CEO of Rape Crisis in England and Wales, who stated that she was "deeply concerned by the dangerous ideology of misogynistic rape culture that Mr. Tate spreads.".
Mr. Tate called those accusations "absolute garbage" while seated across from me in a tiny armchair.
He later stated in the interview that pretending to harm young people was "completely disingenuous.".
The Conversation with Andrew Tate.
In an effort to protect his reputation, Andrew Tate denied encouraging a misogynistic culture.
Currently available on BBC iPlayer (UK Only).
He responded, "I have never, ever encouraged a student to attack a teacher, male or female, ever, in response to organizations that blamed me for increased incidents of girls being attacked and female teachers being harassed.
"I advocate diligence and control. I'm an athlete, I advocate against drugs, I promote religion, I advocate against alcohol, and I advocate against knife crime. I oppose every single one of modern society's problems. ".
Mr. Tate claimed that some of his remarks, including one in a video discussion in which he claimed that a woman's private parts belonged to her male partner, had been misinterpreted or meant as "jokes.".
"I'm unsure if you comprehend what sarcasm is. I doubt that you comprehend what context is. When confronted about the remark, he said, "I don't know if you understand what's satirical content.
His description differs from the tone of an online video that the BBC has seen.
In spite of remarks made on an earlier version of his online coaching course, Hustlers University, he also refuted admitting to manipulating women emotionally. .
An introduction on that site began: "My name is Andrew Tate… and I'm the most competent person on the entire planet to teach you about male-female interactions. ".
Mr. Tate's job, according to the article, was to "meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her, make her fall in love with me to the point where she'd do anything I said, and then get her on a webcam so we could become rich together.".
The page has since been taken down.
When asked about it in our interview, Mr Tate replied, "I've never said that. ".
I suggested that making controversial statements had brought him a lot of money by attracting followers who then signed up for a paid course on how to become a successful man.
Mr Tate replied: "I genuinely am a force for good in the world. Even if you don't realize it yet, you will eventually. And I genuinely believe I am acting under the instruction of God to do good things, and I want to make the world a better place. ".
Mr. Tate told me I was "saying silly things" and should "do some research" as our nearly forty-minute conversation progressed, pointing repeatedly to the "little pieces of paper" I had brought with me.
In a sign of his mistrust of traditional media, our visit and interview were filmed by his team for their own use - and after we left he claimed that the BBC had promised only to ask "sanitised questions".
While the BBC did provide topics of discussion before the interview as a matter of courtesy, as per our editorial guidelines, we did not agree the questions we would ask in advance and were clear that our interview would be a wide-ranging, dynamic discussion with challenging questions.
Mr. Tate promised to publish his own version of the interview in a social media post before we had even left the building, which he did shortly after.
The BBC has followed his case closely since the end of last year, when the Tate brothers were taken into custody, and has spoken to witnesses, former employees, neighbours and associates, and those involved in the investigation, to piece together an accurate picture of the Tate brothers' time in Romania.
The brothers are now in their sixth - and last - month under judicial control in this investigation, and any indictment is expected within the next few weeks.
