Andrew Tate’s fiery BBC interview while under house arrest in Romania

Controversial influencer Andrew Tate invited the BBC into his Romanian home, where he is under house arrest for alleged rape and human trafficking offences. The fiery interview was posted online yesterday, June 2. 

Tate, who has been accused of having misogynistic views and now of serious crimes albeit without current charges, was quick to dismiss the interviewer’s examples of people who had allegedly spoken out against him.

He accused the BBC of inventing ‘Sophie‘, a person who they interviewed under a false name, who they reported to have told them that Tate tricked her into going to Romania with him so he could use her to make money.  He said in the interview:

“I’m doing you the favour as legacy media, giving you relevance, by speaking to you. And I’m telling you now, this Sophie, which the BBC has invented, who has no face. Nobody knows who she is. I know.”

Mr Tate is known to have a distaste for what he refers to as ‘legacy media’ including the BBC and other news institutions which he sees as being overtaken by online media sources.

When asked about the details of his case he is tight-lipped saying talking about it could harm his case, but he repeatedly maintains his innocence and his belief that no charges will be brought against them.

When the interviewer Lucy Williamson says that he has been manipulative and harmful to people like Sophie, he asks what crime he has committed putting Williamson on the back foot. He posits that if people like ‘Sophie’ are real or truthful then where are the charges against him?

Tate accuses Williamson of cherry-picking quotes from long-form interviews and using them out of context to try and attack him. Mr Tate generally denies the accusations against him.

When Lucy Williamson puts to him that people such as the chief executive of Rape Crisis in England and Wales have accused him of spreading a dangerous ideology of misogynistic rape culture, he describes these comments as ‘absolute garbage’.

He says: “I preach hard work, discipline. I’m an athlete, I preach anti-drugs, I preach religion, I preach no alcohol, I preach no knife crime. Every single problem with modern society I’m against.”

Tate has a large number of opinions stacked against him but also a large, dedicated online following. He suggests in the interview that the BBC could have used their time with him for a good-faith discussion, but instead came armed with sound bites.  And many would agree.

Despite his confidence and sworn innocence, Andrew Tate has yet to be released from his house arrest in Romania and we await to see if any charges are brought against him.