Social media influencer Andrew Tate is facing a new lawsuit in the United States, in which he stands accused of sexually assaulting his former girlfriend at a Los Angeles hotel and beating her.
It adds to existing legal trouble for Tate, known for his misogynist views, who is charged with human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in Romania. His brother, Tristan Tate, is also accused in that case.
Andrew and Tristan Tate land in Florida in February after leaving Romania.
Andrew and Tristan Tate land in Florida in February after leaving Romania.Credit: AP
Andrew Tate had 4.7 million followers on Instagram before Meta kicked him off the platform, and off Facebook, in 2022.
In her complaint, Andrew Tate’s former girlfriend, Brianna Stern, argues that his abusive treatment of her follows a long pattern of making blatant misogyny part of his brand. She said he initially acted effusively loving and generous to lure her into a relationship that later turned abusive.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday in Los Angeles, details an encounter earlier this month at the Beverly Hills Hotel, during which Andrew Tate choked and beat her, according to the complaint. Stern said she was later diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome.
Andrew Tate’s lawyer, Joseph McBride, said his client denied all allegations of violence. McBride accused Stern and her lawyers of taking advantage of the recent controversy surrounding Tate, hoping it could win them a lucrative payout.
“This is a money grab,” McBride said on Saturday. “This is the weaponisation of the court system against an innocent man.”
The Tate brothers, who are dual US and British citizens, were arrested in Romania in late 2022 and formally indicted last year. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape. They deny all the allegations against them.
Stern met Andrew Tate in July 2024 after the brothers invited her to Romania because they were looking for models to help promote their cryptocurrency meme coin, according to her lawsuit. She said he convinced her the media portrayals of him were untrue, that he was actually a supporter of women. It seemed like “a dream come true,” she said in the complaint.
After she returned to the United States, Andrew Tate’s communications became threatening and manipulative, and included calling her his “property,” Stern alleges. He sent messages saying he wanted to beat and impregnate her: “You have an attitude because you’re not hit enough,” he once wrote, according to the complaint.
Andrew Tate’s lawyer, however, called the messages “doctored, edited and falsified,” saying he doesn’t believe they would be admissible in court.
“None of it is true,” McBride said. “All of it is a lie.”
During their last encounter at the hotel, Stern alleges, Andrew Tate beat and choked her during sex.
“While doing so, Tate told her repeatedly that if she ever crossed him, he was going to kill her,” the lawsuit says.
Andrew Tate, 38, is a former professional kickboxer and self-described misogynist who has amassed millions of followers online, many of them young men and boys drawn in by the luxurious lifestyle he projects. He previously was banned from TikTok, YouTube and Facebook for hate speech, including that women should bear responsibility for getting raped. He and his brother are vocal supporters of president Donald Trump.
The Tate brothers checked in at a police station near Romania’s capital last Monday, complying with judicial control requirements in the human trafficking case that ordered them to return after weeks in the US. The American trip was possible because a travel ban against them was lifted last month after a Romanian court found multiple legal and procedural irregularities, a significant blow to the prosecution and a win for the Tates.
Andrew Tate has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and claimed there’s a political conspiracy to silence him.
Days after they arrived in Florida, the state’s attorney general opened a criminal investigation into the brothers.
Four British women are suing Andrew Tate in Britain after the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute him on sexual violence and other abuse charges. Last March, the brothers appeared at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in a separate case after British authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations of sexual aggression dating back several years. The Appeals Court granted the British request to extradite them, but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.
Stern said in a statement posted to social media that she’s terrified of how Andrew Tate will respond to her public accusations.
“I considered many times just silently leaving Andrew and saying nothing, doing nothing, because I was scared and because it was honestly hard for me to accept that I was being abused,” she wrote. “But I can now see that doing so would be the cowardly approach.”
Her lawyer, Tony Buzbee, praised her “incredible courage to come forward and make her voice heard”.