has hit headlines again this week after a in the UK.
The reality-star turned kickboxer has become best known in recent years for his online influencing work, which has been slammed for its .
Late last year he and brother Tristan Tate were ordered by a Romanian court not to leave the country after it was revealed they were beingof rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang – charges they deny.
Then this week the UK also issued warrants for the pairs arrest; however, Bucharest’s Court of Appeal postponed a decision on the warrant.
But years before all this, Tate first came to public prominence for his appearance on in 2016, a stint that was .
Here’s everything that unfolded at the time.
When did Andrew Tate appear on Big Brother?
At the time of appearing on Big Brother, Tate who had picked up his first world title in 2011.
Entering the game sharing he had a strong strategy to win, he was first revealed to be an ‘Other Housemate’ who had to earn his housemate status.
He was voted by the public to temporarily move into the main house as part of a secret task, but quickly argued with the others about their two-faced actions after secretly watching them before he entered.
He later alleged three of his housemates threatened to hit him and that producers had to ‘beg’ him not to retaliate if one of them lashed out at him.
‘”You’ll destroy them, you’ll annihilate them. You’re a pro fighter, these are people who think they can fight”,’ he claimed they told him.
Channel 5 soon released a counter statement, saying what he’d claimed was ‘completely false’.
What happened during his time in the house?
Just eight days into his time in the house, Tate was kicked out.
While still on screen, old social media posts of his emerged, in which Tate made homophobic and racist comments on Twitter.
Back in 2012, he had tweeted: ‘Cheryl Cole is a massive w*g socket.’
The tweet was and referenced her marriage to Ashley Cole.
In the same year, he also made a racist comment about black people generally, writing: ‘If I wanted to see black people running I’d just threaten them with jobs’ – and adding ‘the racist lady on the train is right’.
Soon after his brother defended him, saying the fact they were mixed race meant Tate couldn’t be racist.
He was later removed from the show, with producers citing a video apparently showing him hitting a woman with a belt.
Tate defended the tape, claiming it was edited so that the ‘laughing and joking’ was deleted from the clip.
He added was a ‘kinky sex video’ and that the pair were just role playing.
When he was removed, Channel 5 said the decision came after ‘information which came to light’.
The woman later spoke out in his defence, saying that it had all been a ‘huge misunderstanding’.
What has Andrew Tate been doing since appearing on reality TV?
Over the past eight years Tate has amassed an online following for spreading his views, which have been slammed by many and cited as ‘brainwashing a generation’ due to his influence on young men.
He’s made inflammatory comments about sexual assault, saying depression ‘isn’t real’ and that women ‘belong in the house’, ‘can’t drive’ and are ‘given to the man and belong to the man’.
He is also the founder of Hustler’s University, an online site where members pay a monthly membership fee in exchange for advice on topics such as dropshipping and cryptocurrency trading.
When responding to the allegations made towards Harvey Weinstein in 2017, Tate wrote a number of vile tweets in which he stated that women should ‘bare some responsibility’ for being raped.
He has become associated with online far-right communities after contributing to the Alex Jones-owned site InfoWars
Last year he was banned from most major social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.
After living in Romania for five years, in 2022 Tate was arrested as part of an ongoing human trafficking investigation and has since been charged alongside his brother with forming an organised criminal group in 2021 and trafficking women across Romania, the UK and the US.
On Monday they were arrested again after the British courts issued an arrest warrant over accusations of sexual misconduct and the exploitation of individuals in the UK.
They will be extradited once their trial in Romania comes to an end.
If found guilty, Tate faces a decade in jail for human trafficking and up to 18 years if found guilty of rape and a further 15 years maximum for sexual exploitation.
