As Andrew and Tristan Tate flew from Romania to Florida’s Fort Lauderdale airport in their Gulfstream G550 private jet last Thursday, one young woman was anxiously watching rolling news reports of their journey from her rented apartment.
While the brothers, who have dual British-American citizenship, smoked £600 Cohiba Cuban cigars and reclined on cream leather seats at 35,000ft, the 23-year-old frantically called her lawyer.
When they touched down at 11am, dressed in sharp suits with glinting £25,000 Hublot watches on their wrists, and brazenly strode across the tarmac, through border control and into the USA, she started fearing for her safety.
For the woman – known only as ‘Jane Doe’ for her own protection – knows this widely-reviled pair only too well.
Once, back in 2021, she even believed she was in love with Tristan Tate, 36, a former kickboxer who has become an internet personality and simpering sidekick to his better-known brother – the pioneer of what is known as toxic masculinity.
Having courted her online, and then in real life, she claims he flew her to Romania under false pretences, where she was kept in a ‘compound’ with other women also in relationships with the brothers, all making videos for their webcam pornography business.
Horrified, and allegedly surrounded by others being pressurised into doing explicit acts against their will, Jane claims she realised the Tates had tried to sex-traffic her.
With the help of her parents, a friend and the US embassy, she escaped back home.
Andrew and Tristan Tate arrive in Florida after being allowed to leave Romania following an intervention by Donald Trump’s administration
The brothers, who are joint US and UK nationals but who lived near Bucharest, were arrested in 2022 on charges of human trafficking, sexual misconduct, money laundering and forming an organised crime group. They have denied any wrongdoing
Andrew Tate posts a video on March 4, 2025, captioned, ‘First day of Freedom in Miami’
Andrew Tate strikes a pose at the Court of Appeals in Bucharest, Romania, in July 2024
But that home is Florida – the very place the toxic influencers are now singing their praise of Donald Trump and fraternising with fans at the heart of MAGA America.
Proud Trump supporters, describing the President as a ‘hero’ who ‘saved the Western World’, there have even been some reports that Tristan and Andrew, 38, stayed at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, while the man himself was in the state.
All this couldn’t be in further contrast to the news in the UK this week that crossbow killer Kyle Clifford murdered his ex-partner along with her sister and mother after his anger at being dumped was fuelled by watching Andrew Tate’s misogynistic videos.
Though Florida’s attorney general has now launched a criminal investigation into the brothers, this seems to have done little to dent their US charm offensive.
Andrew Tate is staying at a luxury condo with a pool in Miami and has appeared as a guest on a popular podcast, uploaded videos mocking the legal case against him, and been spotted buying £300 bottles of champagne at Miami’s LIV nightclub.
This fawning welcome – and the freedom the Tates appear to be luxuriating in – has been chilling to Jane Doe.
Speaking exclusively to the Mail, her lawyer, Dani Pinter, senior vice president of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, revealed she is utterly ‘terrified’.
‘Her parents are terrified [too]. They’re wondering if someone will show up at their door’ she says.
Such is Jane’s fear of being located that she has gone into hiding, Dani reveals.
They also face charges including accusations of rape and human trafficking in the UK
Andrew Tate, left, and his brother Tristan, arrive at the Bucharest Tribunal in Bucharest, Romania in November 2023
The Tates were held in police detention for three months and later placed under house arrest
Andrew and his brother have denied all wrongdoing in the face of the charges
Andrew Tate grimaces upon exiting a police detention facility in Bucharest, in March 2024
Living in rented accommodation and paying cash in hand, Jane’s existence has been shattered by her decision to stand up to the Tates after she agreed to help the US embassy, who rescued her from Romania, with their case against the duo.
Consequently, she was named on the indictment which led to the brothers’ arrest there in December 2022, on charges of human trafficking, sexual misconduct, money laundering and forming an organised crime group.
The Tates were held in police detention for three months and later placed under house arrest.
They were – until last week – banned from leaving the country, and expected to face trial in Romania before being extradited to the UK, where they also face charges of rape and human trafficking.
But the Tates, who deny all wrongdoing, have fought back against Jane Doe. Dani says that in January 2023, their lawyer sent a letter demanding she recant her statement – or they would sue her and her parents for $10 million (£7.7 million) each. She did not.
So in August that year the Tates sued Jane and her parents for defamation, claiming $5 million (£3.8 million) in reputational damages as a result of her claims.
It also marked the start of what her lawyer describes as a campaign of harassment, whereby Jane’s personal information was shared online – known as doxing – with the Tates’ millions of fans encouraged to troll, discredit and humiliate her.
‘The Tate brothers engaged their followers to harass her for years,’ Dani explains.
‘She’s been terrified the Tates’ followers and associates would find her. Now they are in Florida, even the Tates [themselves] could find her.’
Andrew and his brother were – until last week – banned from leaving the country, and expected to face trial in Romania before being extradited to the UK
Andrew’s video from Miami features him and brother Tristan in a luxury home in Florida, eating either sushi or poke bowls poolside
Police officers escort Andrew Tate, handcuffed to his brother Tristan, outside the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) in Bucharest, January 2023
The brothers touched down at 11am, dressed in sharp suits with glinting £25,000 Hublot watches on their wrists
But Jane refused to be silenced. Last month, she counter-sued the Tates, alleging attempted sex trafficking, as well witness intimidation and tampering.
In a 183-page publicly available court document, the Tates are claimed to be ‘webcam pimps and pornographers who made their first million dollars from lying and deceiving women’.
In response to the filing, on February 10, the Tates applied to a judge in Palm Beach, Florida, to seal the documents on the grounds they contained confidential information, which he duly did.
Just over a fortnight later came the shock news that Romanian authorities had dropped the travel ban that had been imposed on the brothers since 2022.According to national media reports, the brothers left for the US to attend to ‘family issues they wanted to resolve’.
This may be the case; Andrew and Tristan, who were born in Washington DC to an American father and English mother, spent much of their childhood in Luton after their parents’ divorce, but still have relatives in the US.
Melvin Cox, one of their American cousins, told the Mail this week the brothers’ family is ‘trying not to judge them’.
‘They’re supportive of them, whatever they’ve done,’ he added.
There is also the not-so-small matter of the many children Andrew – a former kickboxing champion who shot to notoriety on Big Brother in 2016 – and his brother have fathered.
While Tristan is reported to have two, Andrew has boasted about his ‘double-digit’ offspring in the past.
The pair arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Thursday February 27
Andrew Tate speaks to a reporter after leaving the Bucharest Tribunal in March 2024
The brothers landed in the US on 27 February after Romanian prosecutors agreed to let them leave
With the prospect of prison hanging over them, if they are convicted, perhaps now is the time to get acquainted.
But the real controversy over the brothers’ release is the claim the Trump administration was behind it. Officials from the White House are said to have pressured Romanian authorities into lifting the Tates’ travel ban.
Among their alleged victims, claims of US officials’ involvement in their lavish trip to America have sparked outrage. Dani Pinter describes the development as ‘really shocking’, adding that Jane is ‘disappointed’ in the Romanian authorities for letting them go.
It’s no secret the Tates, whose conservative stance and entrenched views on gender align with more extreme Republican values, are fans of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.
Andrew, in particular, is an obsequious admirer of Trump, recently describing him as a ‘bulletproof badass’.
Indeed, when he won the US election last year, Andrew delightedly told his 10.7 million followers on X: ‘I’m moving back to America.’ Earlier this week, he said in a clip posted to the site: ‘I’m very close with the Trump family. I know them well.’ He added he had spoken to Barron Trump, Donald’s 18-year-old son.
And there are other links. One of the Tates’ lawyers, Paul Ingrassia, now works as White House liaison to the US Department of Homeland Security – and previously praised Andrew Tate as ‘an extraordinary human being’.
They have also curried favour with key figures in the President’s orbit. Donald Trump Jr, 47, his eldest son, once called the brothers’ detention in Romania ‘absolute insanity’.
Andrew, in particular, is an obsequious admirer of Trump, recently describing him as a ‘bulletproof badass’
Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate (not pictured) are escorted by police officers outside the headquarters of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism in Bucharest in December 2022
Andrew Tate speaks to media after being released from house arrest and put under judicial control measures, on the outskirts of Bucharest in August 2023
Elon Musk, the tech billionaire-turned-senior advisor to President Trump, reinstated Andrew’s X account after it was banned and suggested he might make a good UK Prime Minister.
But Trump himself has been notably tight-lipped about his role in – or opinion on – the divisive duo’s arrival on US soil.
When asked about them at the White House last week, he simply said: ‘I know nothing about that’.
It is, perhaps, no surprise that he may wish to distance himself from the acts they are alleged to have committed, laid out in Jane Doe’s countersuit.
In the lengthy document, Jane claims she met Tristan in Miami, when he was visiting the city for one of the controversial ‘War Room’ events – the name given to Andrew Tate’s global network whereby, for a £6,200 membership fee, he teaches men how to be ‘free’.
The pair started dating, and when he confessed his love and convinced her to move to Romania, she alleges he set her rules, including removing all body hair, and not making friends or leaving the house without his consent.
She claims she felt pressured from the start to make sexually-explicit content on OnlyFans and TikTok. The other women in the house, Jane alleges, worked long hours and appeared ‘malnourished and unhappy’.
The document also contains vile exchanges allegedly between Andrew and another woman in Romania, named Mary Doe. ‘I know in the wrong circumstances I could snap,’ the document claims Andrew told Mary.
Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate are escorted by police officers in December 2022
Andrew posted a video filmed in Miami where he and his brother lay poolside
They were also filmed clubbing and smoking cigars later on in the footage
Frightened of what might happen if they stayed, Jane claims she bought herself and Mary flights to London, and confided in her parents and a friend, who contacted the US embassy in Romania.
In April 2022, the Romanian police raided the Tate compound and rescued Jane – who had been there just six days – and Mary.
The document goes on to claim how, after her cooperation with the authorities, the brothers ‘instructed and encouraged’ their followers to harass Jane Doe.
For their part, the brothers claim it is they who are being harassed by Jane. Andrew and Tristan deny all the allegations, which their US lawyer, Joseph McBride, has called ‘defamatory and unequivocally false’.
Earlier this week, Andrew posted a video to his X account, where he branded the latest criminal inquiry in Florida ‘garbage’. ‘They have never found enough evidence to get to a trial,’ he told his followers. ‘Six years I have been waiting to prove my innocence.’
According to his latest media appearance, on the PBD podcast, Andrew has vowed to return to Romania to face trial – so he and his brother may well get their day in court.
They are also facing criminal charges over here, with the Prime Minister being urged to request their extradition to the UK when the case in Bucharest concludes.
But speaking in the podcast, Andrew was dismissive of his former home, calling the UK a ‘fallen nation’.
Much like their American family, however, the Tates’ British relatives continue to support the controversial influencers.
At their uncle John Ashleigh’s house, not far from the run-down Marsh Farm estate where they moved when Andrew was 11 and Tristan nine, his wife told the Mail that what had been written about the brothers was ‘lies’. ‘To be truthful, they’re not bad boys and that’s all I can say,’ she added.
After everything she claims they have put her through, Jane Doe would strongly disagree.
‘She is unbelievably brave,’ Dani Pinter says. ‘She’s determined.
‘She’s not going to give in – and she hopes more women find the courage to come forward.’
The Tate brothers were contacted for comment.
Additional reporting: Barbara McMahon
