- An ex-girlfriend of Andrew Tate came forward to described being manipulated and attacked by him.
- The woman, going by the pseudonym Sophie, told the BBC Tate is a "narcissist" with no empathy.
An ex-girlfriend of Andrew Tate has come forward with new allegations against him, saying he would disappear in the middle of the night and once strangled her until she passed out.
The woman, who was given the pseudonym Sophie, spoke to the BBC for a radio documentary called "Living With Andrew Tate."
She described him as a "narcissist" lacking in "any kind of empathy." She said he manipulated her into joining his webcam porn business by making her believe they were in a committed relationship.
Tate, a controversial British-American online influencer, has been held in a Romanian jail since his arrest in December, following allegations of human trafficking and rape. His brother Tristan Tate and two female confidants, Georgiana Naghel and Luana Radu, are also being held. They all deny the allegations against them.
Sophie told the BBC that Tate approached her on Facebook with an unsolicited message.
"He was very charming and he made himself seem very familiar," she said. "He made me feel very comfortable. There were no red flags at all in the beginning, he just took an interest in my day to day life, wanted to know what I was into, what made me happy. It was developing naturally."
Once they had been speaking for a while he asked her to join him in Romania. Sophie said her life was a bit boring at the time, and Tate seemed so into her that she agreed.
Things were fine at the start, but then after a few days, something changed, Sophie said. One night, Tate got up out of bed and disappeared. He didn't return for several days, she said, leaving Sophie alone in his house.
Sophie, although troubled by the experience, said she kept seeing Tate and visited him in Romania more times. He gradually started ramping up his discussions about her joining his webcam business. He told Sophie she could "make a fortune" as a sex worker, and they would build the business together. He would chip away at her, she said, until she eventually conceded.
"He was always reminding me that the option was there," Sophie said. "And that kind of progressed into, well, if you love me, you would do it. If you care about me, you would do it."
Sophie's experience mirrors the recruitment techniques Tate bragged about in his own videos, and in the experiences described in court documents uncovered by a Reuters investigation.
The documents, from the Romanian case against him, said two women told investigators they were manipulated into sex work and forced into making content for OnlyFans. Tate's female confidants took half the earnings, and threatened to beat women who did not comply, they said.
Sophie's description also matches the "loverboy" sex-trafficking method which Romanian prosecutors allege he used — in which people are manipulated into sex work by being made to believe they are in a committed relationship.
The relationship became more violent over time, Sophie said. One time there was a disagreement, she said, and Tate held her up against the wall and yelled at her, calling her a "whore."
He also became more aggressive during sex, once choking her so hard that she passed out, she said.
It seemed like Tate panicked, she said, "because he knew he'd gone to far."
"He likes to feel totally in control of the woman and feel like he could take their life away at any second," Sophie said. "That is a big sexual turn on for him."
Two women who came forward with allegations in a Vice News investigation had similar stories. One accused Tate of rape, and the other of violent assault, saying he choked her as well.
Both women used psudenoyms, but Insider confirmed that their claims led UK authorities to arrest Tate, though he was ultimately not charged.
Sophie also got a tattoo of Tate's name, like the ones seen on two Romanian women who worked with Tate and have insisted they were never abused. In interviews, the women, called Beatrice and Jasmin, said they were wrongly painted as victims by Romanian authorities, and have no problem with Tate or his brother.
Sophie told the BBC that she was not surprised some women are supportive of Tate, because "he will intentionally be treating some people very well, knowing that they are going to go out into the world saying all this great stuff about him." Some women under his control are "so infatuated and brainwashed by him" that they would never say a bad word about him, she said.
"It's all manipulation and there's an ulterior motive to everything he does," Sophie said. "It's difficult for people to understand who haven't felt how manipulative he is, or other men can be, unless you've had experience of that."
Sophie, now in her 30s, eventually left the relationship and moved back to the UK. She said she knew Tate's empire "would all come falling down eventually."
"I just had to get away from it," she said. "I remember being at work and I was just so overwhelmed and I'd never felt a darkness like it."
The BBC said Tate's legal team did not respond to its request for comment. Insider also sought comment but has yet to receive a response.
The judge in Tate's case ruled that he must stay in jail until the end of February while the investigation continues.