Who is Andrew Tate? Greta Thunberg Twitter exchange, was he on Big Brother and his views on women explained

From being announced dead from Piers Morgan’s hacked Twitter account to engaging in online beef with 19 year old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Andrew Tate has found himself hitting the headlines more than usual as of late.

This is everything you need to know.

Who is Andrew Tate?

Tate is an American-British influencer and former professional kickboxer who rose to fame as an internet personality spreading misogynistic and far-right ideology.

He was born in Washington, D.C, on 1 December 1986 and, after his parents divorced, moved with his mother and brother to England. He started training in boxing and martial arts in 2005 and in 2008 was ranked in the British top 10 in the light-heavyweight category by the International Sport Kickboxing Association (ISKA).

Tate won his first ISKA world title in 2011 in a match against Jean-Luc Benoit. The following year, Tate lost the Enfusion championship tournament to Franci Grajs before going on to win his second ISKA world title in 2013 against Vincent Petitjean. He has since retired from kickboxing.

He started gaining attention online in around the middle of 2022, and was initially known amongst far-right circles through his appearances on shows like Alex Jones’ InfoWars.

Tate has been repeatedly banned from social media, including being permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram. Parent company Meta said that Tate has violated their policy on “dangerous organisations and individuals”. He has also been removed from TikTok, with the platform explaining that he violated its policies on “content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against, or otherwise dehumanises an individual or group”. He has also been banned from YouTube for similar reasons, with the company citing violations against hate speech and Covid-19 misinformation.

He has been repeatedly banned from Twitter - however, following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in November, his five year ban from the site was lifted. Prior to taking over the site, Musk emphasised that one of his main focuses would be protecting free speech and, after buying Twitter, followed through with the controversial policy of reinstating previously banned accounts.

As well as Tate, these accounts also included the likes of former US President Donald Trump, far-right YouTuber Jordan Peterson and Kanye West - however, West was suspended once again by Musk after posting antisemitic tweets.

What are his views on women?

Tate is known for his extremely misogynist views, and in an appearance on the Anything Goes with James English podcast in 2021, he happily described himself as “absolutely sexist and absolutely a misogynist”.

Comments Tate has made about women include:

• Stating that 18 year old girls are more attractive than women aged 20 and up because “they’ve been through less dick” 
• Saying that rape victims must “bear some responsibility” for putting themselves in “a position to be raped” 
• Explaining that “40% of the reason” for moving to Romania was due to its relatively relaxed sexual assault laws - he said that he likes “the idea of just being able to do what I want”
• Saying that, if a woman accused him of cheating, “it’s bang out the machete, boom in her face and grip her by the neck”
• Claiming that women belong in the home, that they cannot drive, and are a man’s property 

Was he on Big Brother?

Some might recognise Tate from his 2016 stint on Big Brother, where he was eventually booted by Channel 5 bosses after footage of Tate hitting his girlfriend with a belt whilst in bed together was acquired by The Sun. In the video, the woman could be seen in her underwear on the bed, with Tate yelling and swearing at her, and threatening to “f**king kill her” if she messaged another man.

A Channel 5 spokesperson said at the time: “Channel 5 and the producers reached the view that Andrew’s position as a housemate had become untenable after a video was brought to our attention by The Sun.”

Speaking to Bizarre, Tate claimed that the video had been taken out of context, stating: “This tape is a kinky sex video and we’re acting out a role play.”

He added: “A longer version of the video shows us laughing and I’m hitting myself saying, “It doesn’t hurt”. I’m still friends with her and she’s in the UK with me now. I would never hit a woman.”

What did he say to Greta Thunberg - how did she respond?

On Tuesday (27 December), Tate tagged Thunberg in a tweet attempting to boast about his excessive number of cars and “enormous emissions”.

Alongside a picture of himself filling up his Bugatti at a fuel pump, Tate wrote: “Hello @GretaThunberg. I have 33 cars. My Bugatti has a w16 8.0L quad turbo. My TWO Ferrari 812 competizione have 6.5L v12s. This is just the start. Please provide your email address so I can send a complete list of my car collection and their respective enormous emissions.”

Thunberg responded by quote tweeting Tate’s original tweet, and added: “Yes, please do enlighten me. Email me at [email protected].”

The young activist was applauded online for her reply, with one person writing: “6’3” 200 lb 36 yr old dude picks fight with 19 yr old girl and loses in front of 50 million people. And counting.”

Another added: “This may well be the greatest tweet of all time.”

Tate initially replied to Thunberg by tweeting “How dare you?!”, before following up with a video with the caption: “Thank you for confirming via your email address that you have a small penis @GretaThunberg. The world was curious. And I do agree you should get a life [heart emoji].”

In the two minute long video, Tate ranted that Thunberg was referring to herself in her tweet, stating: “Greta’s email address is “I have small dick energy”. Why would that be her own email? Strange. I don’t want to assume her gender, it’s 50/50, but it is what it is.”

At one point, Tate addresses someone off camera, telling them to bring him pizza and to ensure that the boxes “are not recycled” before continuing.

He said: “So I’m not actually mad at Greta, because she doesn’t realise she’s been programmed, she’s a slave of the matrix, she thinks she’s doing good. Someone has sat her down and convinced her to try and convince you to beg your government to tax you into poverty to stop the sun from being hot.

“And then, because I called her out on it, the global matrix got this bot farm to like and retweet and all this bot commenting try and pretend that her telling me that she has a small dick in her own email address somehow teaches me a lesson.

“Now I know at least that Greta [is] hate-filled, bitter, sitting somewhere without the heating on, shivering, views my tweets, which is going to make my Twitter account far more fun into eternity.”

However, users on Twitter were less than impressed with his attempted comeback at Thunberg.

Presenter Matthew Stadlen replied to his video writing: “Greta has rattled Andy so hard that he’s got dressed in a dressing gown and staged himself receiving pizza. Not a fan of the word “owned”. But I’ll make an exception for Andy, who has been emphatically owned.”

Actor George Takei tweeted: “This is just sad. Just fold, my man. Just fold and beg for forgiveness.”

“You had 10 hours to think about it and “I know you are, but what am I?” was the best you could come up with? Take the L, dude,” wrote another.

Is he going to fight Jake Paul?

In November, YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul teased a potential fight between himself and Tate after tweeting a video that showed the two facing off against one another shirtless, with the caption: “Negotiations.”

However, in a livestream with Adin Ross in early December, Tate said that he believed that the fight was unlikely to happen.

He said: “I don’t think me and Jake Paul are going to fight. There’s a lot of negotiations behind the scenes. It’s not a simple process.”