Becoming Andrew Tate: The Life and Times of the Most Notorious Influencer (2023)

brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate;They spent their teenage years in the leafy town of Goshen, Indiana. At the time, in the 1990s, the city had about 24,000 residents, in addition to a large Mennonite population in the surrounding rural areas. However, blended families like the Tates' are rare. In the not-too-distant past, Goshenonce a city at sunset.

Andrew and Tristan, sons of white British working woman Eileen Ashleigh and veteran black chess master Emory Tate Jr. they grew up in the family. They went to church with their cousins ​​and played together at their grandmother's house.

Tristan was a quiet boy who came home from church one day and announced that he had dedicated himself to Jesus, Elizabeth Tate, the Tate sisters' aunt, told BuzzFeed News in an exclusive interview. She said that Andrew — born Andrew Tate III of Emory, nearly two years older than Tristan — enjoyed taking care of his cousins, making sure they were seated at the table and making sure they had the right dishes.

According to people who knew the brothers growing up, there was no indication that they would become infamous figures in Internet circles. Andrew, who started out as a kickboxer, once boasted that he was "definitely a misogynist" andnotorious opinionRape victims must "take responsibility" for their attacks. He has built an army of millions of followers on social media.Respond to your points and attitude- Despite the platform's attempt to ban him, he is one of the most followedpopularInfluencers among adolescent boys.

In 2021, he even opened a life coaching company called Hustlers University,promises to make his followers richer and more attractive to womenUnleashing your inner alpha male. the exact group of your network,war room, billed as "a global network in which the people of individualism work to free modern man from socially induced imprisonment".

Then, on December 29, 2022, Andrew, 36, and Tristan, 34, and two alleged accomplices were arrested.stuck in romaniaHe was also accused of running a trafficking ring that forced women to produce pornography online. The brothers, who claim innocence, remain in preventive detention, which has already been extended several times.

Their aunt Elizabeth, now a lawyer in Arizona, said that while she believes her nephews will be acquitted, she hopes the experience will change them. "We love them. We don't agree with everything they say politically, but we know their hearts," he said. "They're not perfect. There's a lot of arrogance. But it's humbling. We pray they come back and put their lives back together."

The American side of the Tate family is full of high achievers, especially women. The sisters' grandmother, Emma Cox Tate, was an entrepreneur who founded a trucking company in the 1970s and found success in a male-dominated industry. Andrew and Tristan's aunts include lawyers, Ivy League academics, and business people who run a successful McDonald's franchise.

But it's the story of the Tate men, complex characters who rely on violence and competition to make their way in the world, that explains Andrew and Tristan's evolution. Beginning with a child-abusing grandfather who allegedly beat his children with a belt, the Tate family stories, many told here for the first time, help us understand how the brothers built a business empire that challenged misogyny. Modern Man Toxic Self Help ideas to market and sell.

"My mother was very subservient to my father, which is good," Andrew once said in an interview.interview"They used to fight and stuff and I think I learned a lot from my childhood, thinking about male-female dynamics."

A spokesman for the brothers said in a statement: "Andrew has always celebrated the success of the women in his family and encouraged others to follow his example. He believed in traditional male values ​​that a man's role is to support women in achieving their goals. . . they."

We need your help! If you have a message for Andrew Tate, please contact tom.warren@buzzfeed.com or ikran.dahir@buzzfeed.com or contact us safelydicas.buzzfeed.com.

Elizabeth said her father, Emory Tate Sr., was born in Georgia in 1919 to farmers and, according to legend, learned to read using discarded comic books. He left home and joined the army in World War II, whereRed Ball Express, a trucking unit run primarily by black soldiers, delivered vital supplies to Confederate forces.

"He was unhappy because he was discriminated against. In those days, the military was segregated," said Elizabeth. He added that when he returned from the war, he used the GI Bill to help him through high school, college, and eventually law school. The former shareholder found himself "falling into the middle class", said his daughter.

Emory became a lawyer and founded a successful law firm in Chicago. Elizabeth said she once successfully defended a black man against rape charges before an all-white jury. "As soon as I started practicing, I realized what an achievement this was," he said. Despite her success in the city, her father had a small farm in Michigan where he spent his weekends, she said.

One day, Emory went to a restaurant near his Chicago office, where he met Emma Cox, who came from a more affluent biracial Southern family and had four children from a previous marriage, Elizabeth recalled. The couple eventually married and had five children, including Andrew and Tristan's father, Emery Tate Jr., who was born on Chicago's West Side in 1958.

The couple divorced in 1966 after the elder Emory became "increasingly cruel" to his wife.Triple exclamation point! ! !, a biography of Emory Jr. by academic and chess scholar Daaim Shabazz. (The title refers to a phrase used by a young Emery when he won a match or wanted to pay the highest tribute.)

While Elizabeth said her father was "compassionate", a 2014 post on Emory University's Facebook page claimed her father was "the wildest man in the universe" so much so that his son wanted to kill him in some way. “All he knew was hitting people with a belt,” wrote Emery Jr., who prided himself on not repeating the abuse on his own children.

In the years following her divorce, Emma Coxtetter moved to Goshen, Indiana, and her home became the center of her extended family. Elizabeth said her mother took education very seriously and worked hard to get all nine of her children through college after starting a trucking business.

according toTriple exclamation point! ! !Emory Tate Jr. he was rebellious but academically gifted and received a full scholarship to Northwestern University. However, according to his biography, he struggled in school, skipped classes, and took drugs before dropping out.

His half-brother John, a Vietnam veteran, took him in and enrolled him at Alabama State University before encouraging him to join the Air Force. After basic training and a year of studying the Russian language, Emery was assigned to an intelligence agency. During his service in the military, from 1980 to 1992, he excelled at playing chess, winning the United States Armed Forces Chess Championship five times.

One of his Air Force teammates, Leroy Hill, told Shabazz that Emery could become the first black person to become a chess grandmaster, the highest level for a professional chess player, but he lacked commitment and discipline. In fact, after a night out at the pub, Emery didn't shower or shave at the 1987 NATO chess tournament, where he lost to a Norwegian grandmaster.

Later, Emery was stationed at RAF Chicksands, a listening post for Cold War signals in Britain, when he met Erin Ashley, a local woman who would become Andrew and Tristan's mother. "It's a groundbreaking romance," said Elizabeth. "She made him follow her, she was hard to find. He adored her." The couple moved to Maryland in the late 1980s, with Andrew and Tristan in December 1986 and July 1988, respectively, at Walter's, Washington, D.C. Reed Born Military Hospital. Emery was sent to Germany, where the boy's younger sister, Jenny, was born in 1990.

"Andrew's dad used to call him 'super baby,'" Elizabeth said. "He used to be his dad's super baby." She said her brother had nicknames for all the kids: Andrew was "Tiger", Tristan was "Bear" and Jenny was "Toob". Years later, Andrew referred to himself as "The Cobra".

During his military service, Emery was promoted to First Sergeant and received a Distinguished Service Award from the National Security Agency. However, shortly after serving in an intelligence support role in the first Gulf War, he was suddenly discharged in 1992 due to "conditions that affected his military service", according to his biography.

The book suggests that superiors feared Emery had a personality disorder and accused him of glorifying military intelligence. Despite his honorable discharge, he rarely talks about his retirement from the Air Force. Andrew said laterpodcast interviewHer father was diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder. It alleges that Emery Jr. initially refused to sign the resignation papers and told his superiors, "My logic is not for sale".

In the years after leaving the military, Emery told friends stories of how he was able to locate a Russian agent a block away, according to his biography. He would also mention that he was still being followed by KGB or CIA agents. Shabazz finds the reports more than paranoid; he writes that Emery's mother was visited by uniformed servicemen and relatives who traveled with him said he was frequently screened at the airport.

A few days after leaving the hospitalHe and his family moved to Elkhart, Indiana, and then to the neighboring land of Goshen, where Emory's mother moved after their divorce. His wife learned to drive, a necessity in the vast Midwest, and Emory worked a variety of jobs, including his sister's McDonald's franchise and the local parks department. "It was really tough adjusting to having three kids in Indiana and the prospects were slim," Shabazz told BuzzFeed News via LinkedIn message.

Local newspaper reporter Dan Shenk knew the family in Goshen. "People like me, and many people in the Land of Goshen, remember Emory, Erin and the children very fondly," he said. He remembered Eileen's positive attitude and said he was impressed by Emory's talent.

After Schenk interviewed Emory for a local newspaper, the two decided to start a school chess program. Since Emory is black, Shenk said, it's remarkable that the show has taken off. "This is just another example of Goshen finally starting to show up after that sunset," Shenk said.

Emery was an exemplary chess mentor, but he struggled with the program's paperwork, Schenck said. On one occasion, Erin had to attend a children's chess tournament and fill out an application because Emory was out of state for her own tournament and forgot to do so.

Emory's students included Andrew and Tristan, whom he taught from an early age. Schenck said that Andrew was a talented player who regularly beat the big players in games. On August 30, 1993, Emery and Andrew published a front page story in the South Bend Tribune about their collaboration to release the film Chess.I'm looking for Bobby FischerIn the play, Emery recalls how six-year-old Andrew withdrew from an adult chess tournament after losing three games. "Dad, I didn't play well," Andrew reportedly said. Taking him out of the game, Emery told the newspaper, "I saved him from crying in front of everybody."

According to his biography, Emery continued to pursue his chess dreams, taking the bus to tournaments across the country. "He is a huge figure in the chess world and one of the most exciting players around. Not to mention he is an extremely important icon in the black chess community," Shabazz told BuzzFeed News. "He was known for his exciting chess style, which was extremely aggressive. He wasn't the most skilled player, but he dared to create art on the board."

Emery also taught his children how to fight. As a child, he wrote in a 2012 Facebook post, he would gift them pillows that could "kick shit." "Dad coached me," Andrew told Chess Life magazine in January 2016. "And he ordered me to fight like him, helpless."

At home, life will be difficult. Andrew has said that he sometimes felt "eggshelled" with his eccentric but brilliant father, but their relationship greatly influenced his later worldview. When Andrew was 5 years old, onceexplain, being afraid of the dark, asked his father for a night light. “He took my ass to my room and locked me in the room in the dark. He said, 'There are monsters there, boy. Good luck and see you tomorrow”, recalls the influencer, adding that he is no longer afraid of the dark.

It's not difficult to distinguish Emory's views on women from those of his son. In a Facebook post from November 2011, Emery wrote that the alpha male's "eternal problem" is "protecting his female population". He added, "When I hit women (passionately), I never leave a mark. Not a trace. Super control... Human animal super control. They still love me." He didn't specify who he hit on, but he tackled romance and relationships in a way few could have imagined.

Erin and Emery's marriage ended in 1997. Schenk believes this may have been in part due to Emery's nomadic lifestyle. "It's been really stressful for Eileen, and maybe the kids too, wondering when will Daddy get home and will we have enough money for dinner?" he said.

Not so, AndreasindicatedThe separation was about her father's infidelity. The older sister is no longer in touch with Emory, but Andrew and Tristan still keep in touch with their father, who told them, "You'll understand when you grow up." Andrew said: “Now that I'm older, I understand. Fuck a girl. Well;" He added that the concept of cheating was widespread by "Western society" and "powerful women".

"Andrew and Tristan's parents have been a huge part of their lives and are proud of the family values ​​they instilled in them early on," a spokesperson for the Tate brothers said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "Their early lives were much like many other families', with ups and downs, moments of tension and moments of laughter. What is certain is that [Andrew] was working to improve himself and overcome the challenges he faced. faced."

Erin and the children then moved to Luton, England, a large and notorious town close to the base where they first met Emory. It's a far cry from the sleepy Midwestern town where the boys grew up. think"one of the unhappiest placesIn England, Luton has had problems with extremism in all its forms, most recentlyClearAs one of the administrative regions most at risk of far-right activity.

The family lived in Marsh Farm, a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Luton. Andrew's mother works in the school cafeteria. When a BuzzFeed News reporter recently visited their home - a 1970s house with a walled garden where the brothers grew up - a neighbor told us to "unplug your hooks" (a very British way of saying "go away") and threatened to call the police. (Eileen did not respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.)

Elizabeth said the move has not been easy for the children. "When they returned to the UK they were very sad because their mother was poor," she said. "They had to pick up the English accent. They were like little weirdos coming back with an American accent," she added. "I think what happened was Andrew decided they were going to go ahead and create something of their own."

One of Andrew's school friends echoed his words. Lester O'Halloran, 36, went to high school with Andrew and last spoke with him days before his arrest. She said the alleged influencer was ridiculed for using American phrases that other students found inappropriate. "He peed a lot," she told BuzzFeed News. O'Halloran remembered Andrew as "just a regular guy at school" and noted that he was not very popular. Tristan was in the early grades and was quieter than his brother.

Even so, Andrew was obsessed with money. O'Halloran said he would see his wealthier neighbors driving expensive cars and would desperately want one of his own. "He was always looking for ways to get this Ferrari and Lamborghini," he added. It wasn't until they were much older that the boys realized that the cars they saw did not belong to the neighbors, but were rented for special occasions, such as religious festivals and weddings.

While Andrew and Tristan decided not to go to university - Andrew said he was doing well in school but didn't want to write a personal essay for the application - his sister Jenny left Luton to study at the University of Kentucky in the US.

"Their older sister is educated. She leans into her African-American heritage through her upbringing. Andrew and Tristan don't. I think that creates a bit of a rift, the difference in upbringing," said Elizabeth. Jenny later followed in her aunt's footsteps and became a lawyer. (Jennie, who is not involved in her brother's business, did not respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.)

Instead, the boys struggled for financial stability while pursuing a career in taekwondo. Tristan was the manager of a company that sold conservatories (known in the United States as sunrooms), popular in British homes. The brothers also started their own businesses, including an advertising agency, but none were successful.

When they were fighting for money, they had to find creative ways to eat, gain weight for their kickboxing matches, and create a low-cost dish they ironically named Taste because it was so shallow. “It was white rice, frozen peas – because they were cheap – and beans”, remembers Andrew in one of his vlogs.

On his 21st birthday, Tristan and his brother grabbed leftovers from a fast food restaurant. "I used to buy a lot of chicken from KFC," Tristan once said in an interview.video, "Why do I think,Shit, I'm not going to die or lose a kickboxing match because I'm not getting enough protein.”

BuzzFeed News visited KFC, and the Tates sweep became legendary among local employees. They showed their support for the brothers, singing "Free Top G!" - quoting Andrew - when we left.

Jagtar Johal, who runs a gym in Leicestershire, about 75 miles from Luton, said he knew the brothers from the ring as they visited his gym in the early 2010s with top boxers from around the Spar world. "I've never known a brother so close," he said. "They didn't come here in a Bugatti. The image they had in the national media and all, it wasn't what it was. They were real guys. Hard work. They did it out of nowhere."

Another British businessman, who knew the brothers but declined to be named, agreed but said: "They're two different people. There's one guy who's motivated" – referring to Andrew – "and the other guy. not so much." .

Meanwhile, the brothers have their eyes on reality TV, with Andrew appearing on a British TV show in 2010 titledthe best travelerIn the series, contestants travel around Indonesia on a tight budget in an attempt to hold on to their money until the final episode, when one of them wins a cash prize.

From the beginning, Andrew took a strategic approach to in-game alliances, supporting a player who had no other support so that she would later feel compelled to return the favor. “I thought it would be really valuable to have my vote as her only vote, so really I was just trying to manipulate her – to put her aside and make her a usable weapon at some point,” he said.he said in the first episode"I wanted to win so I could go home and say, 'Yes, I won, I beat them all.'

Today, Andrew is accused of manipulating women on an even more sinister scale. According to Romanian prosecutors, he used the so-called lover's method, in which he coddled his victims for months with fake affection and gifts and then lured them into sexual slavery.

during registrationthe best travelerAndrew then fell ill with a condition that left him unable to see in one eye and returned to the UK to recover. BuzzFeed News reached out to some former contestants on the show, but none agreed to be interviewed about Andrew. "I'm not talking about that guy," replied one. "Be very careful."

In 2011, at the age of 23, Tristan appearedShipwreck: Island, in which charming contestants in their 20s are placed on a deserted island and compete to become leaders. Tristan proved to be an instant hit, winning the poll to become the leader in the first week and promising a work-no-play system. "Even if they don't like my leadership," he said, "in the end, when everyone has room to sleep, they will shake my hand and thank me." Although Tristan made it to the end of the show, he wasn't the final winner.

Appearing on the reality show gave Andrew and Tristan some local popularity. Photos of the brothers at the time showed them with their partners at a local nightclub, looking a little less well dressed. O'Halloran, who often hangs out with his brothers, said Andrew used to buy everyone drinks on a night out, but was uncomfortable around women and expected him to take the lead.

O'Halloran joked that now the roles have been reversed and the ex-fiancée is now happily married with children. He added that he declined Andrew's invitation to party with him in Romania, where O'Halloran said the brothers were surrounded by women.

although they tryWhile they achieved fame and fortune on television, the brothers really thrived in the taekwondo gym. They trained at Storm Gym in Luton, a well-equipped facility in a former warehouse in the business district, with Amir Subasic, a former military kickboxer who was close to them and their family.

Academy staff declined to comment on Andrew or Tristan, and the academy's website was recently taken down.renew, exclusionto illustrateAndrew is "one of the most devastating fighters" and Tristan is a "war machine".

Johar, a Leicestershire gym owner, sees Andrew as a skilled kickboxer and admires the way he fights hands down, a high-risk tactic that allows fighters to swing and dodge quickly but exposes them to blows. fall risk.

Dzhokhar suspects that Andrew learned his gift for self-promotion during his years as a fighter. "Andrew has always been a bit controversial. Sometimes you have to be the bad cop," said Johar, explaining that the money and the fights go to the strongest boxers.

"Andrew figured that out a long time ago. He was always saying things to attract people, to get attention. As a person he was none of those things," Johal said. He added that Andrew used to write controversial things on online taekwondo forums to draw attention to his game.

Dutch kickboxer Ibrahim El Boustati, who defeated Andrew to win the championship belt in 2016, saidMirrorThe alpha male characters are all an act. "He lied to a lot of people that he wasn't who he said he was," she told the tabloid. "I know him very well, Andrew and his brother Tristan. I've been doing interviews all week before the game and he's a really nice guy."

Andrew has also resorted to hyperbole to up his fight media game,To sayIn 2013, an interviewer for the sports magazine Love 2 Fighting said that he came from a mysterious realm called Wudan and was trained by a figure called Master Po. The story was later incorporated into Tate's misogynistic educational materials, with elaborate comic book-style cartoon illustrations, and adopted by his followers.

"His battle was selling himself," Johar said. “He literally called himself 'The Cobra'. Because like a snake, he had a right hand that came from behind and knocked most people out."

Both brothers have had success in the ring. Andrew has won several world championships and Tristan has won two British championships. Although it was not a profitable business, it did make some money. Andrew won £10,000 in a race and finally got his hands on an Aston Martin DB9 sports car.

"It was a weird thing because it was a one-bedroom apartment with an Aston Martin DB outside," recalls O'Halloran. This led to Andrew's infamous nickname, "Top G". "When we were little, we always said, 'What a fireplace,'" recalls O'Halloran. "This guy is the number one gangster here - he drives an Aston Martin."

The Tate brothers' competitive careers were closely watched by their father, who at the time often traveled to Europe to compete in chess tournaments. He proudly posted about their kickboxing careers on his Facebook page, saying that the brothers were "the best" and that "destruction itself" was in Andrew's hands.

Throughout the 2010s, Emery also spoke about Internet politics, attacking controversial issues that would dominate the culture wars for years to come. Her response to the BBC's April 2012 report on the transgender Miss Universe contestant was that it gave her "a warm, tingling sensation ... in my right wrist". Emery Jul 2015 Posted on Facebook thatBill CosbyFrom a drug addict looking for a living wage. "One pill and one nudge from Bill, the whole story of a damsel in distress," he wrote. "How can this be rape when all of Hollywood is flying like a kite?"

Many of the themes of alpha masculinity and female subjugation that Emory articulated online were eventually picked up by his sons. As well as her rhetorical style. Emery is frequently mentioned in the film.headquarters, their children would later be mentioned in The Matrix as a shadowy institution trying to crush them. Emery also had a name for his epigram: Tateisms, a term Andrew would later use to describe his own philosophy.

Andrew and Tristan's aunt Elizabeth said that Emory and her children had a different mindset than the rest of the family. "I attribute their conservatism to the fact that their father was in the military, and many military personnel in America identify with the Republican Party," he said. "From a Republican point of view, this is what they got."

She continued, "We're typical American women with careers and children. From my point of view, that's a blessing because women don't have that in many countries. When I hear the arguments they make, I don't think that's necessarily true."

Despite differing political beliefs - she said the Tate brothers supported Donald Trump - she said the family remained close. Elizabeth said that she still believed in Andrew and Tristan when they started supporting the Blue Lives Matter movement after the murder of unarmed black people in the United States.

"They're not in America. They have a different perspective because they come out as white men," he said. "The only way you'll know they're black is if they tell you so."

In 2010, Emory moved toin the Bay Area, where he taught chess to children. He also spent time with one of his older sisters, who had moved there for an academic career, and her son, Luke Leilas.

According to his biography, Emory University made a change in 2014, ditching alcohol for a while. His tuberculosis made him increasingly unstable, and his daughter Janine begged him to stay sober at the family wedding. "He fights because he's drunk. Sometimes it's because he totally embarrasses people in a way that can be... offensive," Shabazz told BuzzFeed News.

Towards the end of his life, Emery's health was declining. On October 17, 2015, he died of a heart attack at a chess tournament in Milpitas, California, aged 56. His children traveled to Alabama for his memorial service. Andreto recommend"He feared nothing, not even death. He was the leader of men in every way," his father told Chess Life magazine.

In July 2016, Andrew appeared as a contestant on its UK edition.big Brother, a reality show in which the contestants live together in a house, isolated from the outside world, and vote for each other. Tate was fired just over a week into the project.

opposite recentlyto discloseAfter the producers learned that the police were investigating Andrew's rape allegations, he was fired from the show (no charges were filed). But at the time, he was fired after a British tabloid found videos showing him beating women with a belt. He later said that his activities were "pure game”

Later in 2016, Tristan registered a company called Model Stars Ltd., which seemed to have ties to adult cameras, and the camera business started to bring in more money than the fights. "Everybody thinks,Where did he find so much money all of a sudden?Dzhokhar remembers. “It just took off. "

The brothers finally embarked on the road to wealth. Soon, they'll find another member of the Tate family to help them. After Emery's death, the brothers were reunited with their cousin Lucreras.

according toIn 2016, Leilas was struggling to pay for college, according to her tweets. The Tate brothers invited him on a trip to Bucharest. "First thing I noticed was it was huge. Take the time to catch up and head to the penthouse they are renting," he tweeted. "The next thing they showed me changed my life."

According to Leilas, a woman on the penthouse showed him her webcam service, and he watched as fans tipped the models and the money rolled in. He decided to stay in Romania and became part of the Tates team, traveling with them around the world and filming their sermons for their followers. He gained his own social media fans, dubbed the mysterious "Cousin Luke".

BuzzFeed News identified Luke's cousin by showing Elizabeth a photo of him. Luke Leilas' social media pages also matched. (Lelas did not respond to a request for comment, but he is believed to be in Romania, supporting the brothers while they are imprisoned. He has not been charged with any crime.)

Since 2016, the brothers' business has been booming. They rented a new apartment in Romania to house their webcam models, and their life coaching services focused on money-making programs attracted men from all over the world. They became successful influencers, showcasing luxury cars, endless travel and an alcoholic lifestyle, while making misogynistic comments.

However, the seeds of his success turned into a downfall. The brothers are adept at manipulating social media algorithms to make their content go viral, getting their fans to retweet, remix and spread it on their own channels. Andrew's comments spread to a wider audience, and eventually, the social media company took action. summer 2022,Andrew has been banned from major platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. (His Twitter account was banned earlier this year and later reinstated with Elon Musk's amnesty for banned accounts.)

In the ensuing outcry, Andrew said his misogynistic comments were "taken out of context". He declined to apologize, saying that if the social media company had warned him about his comments, "I could have been an advocate for women's rights".

Soon after, the former party converted to Islam. A spokesman for the Andrew brothers told BuzzFeed News that Andrew "condemns drug use and abstains from all alcohol use." “He found Islam consistent with his worldview and his conversion came to support his principles and role as a male leader, mentor and family force.”

On December 29, 2022, Romanian police in riot gear and hoods raided the brothers' mansion on the outskirts of Bucharest. The footage shows authorities rushing through the compound - which looks a bit like a Bond villain's lair designed by a teenager - arresting the brothers and collecting their collection of weapons, including airguns and finger guns. The copper sleeve section. The brothers were arrested along with two Romanian women who were accused of being accomplices.

The brothers maintained their innocence and are due to stand trial on human trafficking charges this spring. "Andrew and Tristan deny all allegations in the document and are optimistic that Romanian authorities will see the truth and prevail," their representatives told BuzzFeed News.

Andrew recently went to court to be released to Dubai for medical treatment after a scan revealed a black spot on his lung, representingTo sayThe Daily Mail "might as well be a tumor". However, Andrew later clarified via Twitter that the dark spot was a scar from "an old battle" and not cancer. (Although Andrew was unable to access the internet during the lockdown, peopleto believeHe relays his recent social media posts through handwritten notes and conversations with his prison staff. )

Through it all, Andrew and Tristan's aunt Elizabeth continued to support her nephew. He said he had spoken to the US embassy in Romania about their detention and had contacted President Joe Biden but said he had not heard back. (The State Department confirmed it was aware of the arrests of two US citizens but could not comment further due to privacy concerns.)

He believes that the brothers will finally be released and hopes this will be a lesson for them. "They went to church as kids," he said. "Now that they've grown up, they've left their roots. But people tend to go back to their roots. They humble themselves and end up being better people."

Schenker, a reporter who knew the Goshen family, said he was frequently asked about Andrew and Tristan in town and at their church. "They try to combine these things," he said. "A lot of people say to me, 'Oh, you know Emory and Andrews. What's wrong with Andrew?" It just doesn't count because people have such positive feelings about the Tate family."

Meanwhile, on social media, Andrew appeared introspective but hardly repentant. "Being stuck in jail with so many people commenting that I don't live the high society life anymore. They talk like I'm a rich kid. They talk like I'm broke. I've been struggling all my life," tweeted Road.on Monday, and a punch video. "War is all I know." ●

Matei Rosca contributed to this report.