Andrew Tate Denies Rape Allegations, Misogynistic Statements in First TV Interview

Controversial influencer Andrew Tate has spoken out in his first major interview since being released from prison in Romania and put on house arrest.

In an interview with the BBC released Thursday, Tate denied the allegations made against him of rape, human trafficking, coercive behavior and creating a culture of misogyny for young people.

Earlier this year, one woman who was anonymously interviewed by the news outlet and given the pseudonym "Sophie," claimed that Tate manipulated her into moving to Romania and pressured her into doing webcam work as well as having his name tattooed on her body. Tate denied the claims and accused the BBC of making her up, calling her "imaginary."

"I'm doing you the favor as legacy media, giving you relevance, by speaking to you," Tate said in the interview. "And I'm telling you now, this Sophie, which the BBC has invented, who has no face. Nobody knows who she is. I know."

Tate also said that he does not believe he's caused any harm to young people with his content and said that it is "completely disingenuous" to think he has.

Many of Tate's critics have argued that his content can lead to attacks against teachers and young girls, but when the BBC asked about organizations that have made these accusations against him, he denied making that kind of content, saying he has "never, ever encouraged a student to attack a teacher, male or female, ever."

"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."

The outlet also asked Tate about a page on his website (that has since been taken down) that read: "My name is Andrew Tate… and I'm the most competent person on the entire planet to teach you about male-female interactions."

The page went on to describe how Tate makes his money from webcam sites, saying that his job was to "meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her, test if she's quality, get her to fall in love with me to where she'd do anything I say, and then get her on webcam so we could become rich together."

When the BBC read these to Tate, he said, "I've never said that."

Tate, along with his brother Tristan, were arrested by Romanian authorities in December, and are expected to be indicted within the next few weeks, the BBC reported.