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Big Brother, every version of it, has had its fair share of controversy over the years. When a group of (supposedly vetted) contestants are thrown into a house where they are watched 24/7, their true characters always emerge. And since the internet is unforgiving, fans research the players and dig up things they thought were buried years ago. That is precisely what happened to Andrew Tate in Big Brother.

Andrew Tate, who was a houseguest on 'Big Brother' in the UK, leaves court wearing a black hoodie.
Andrew Tate | Photo by Alex Nicodim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Andrew Tate competed in ‘Big Brother’ in the UK

Big Brother 17 (UK) premiered in June 2016 and featured 19 housemates, including Andrew Tate.

Andrew, a former professional kickboxer born in the United States but living in England, was 29 years old at the time of the game. His biography revealed that he was a member of Mensa and a four-time World Class Kickboxing Champion (his brother, Tristan, trained him). And Andrew’s bio read that he “believes that a man should be able to sleep with as many women as he wants to, but that does not apply to women.” Perhaps the red flags were there all along.

Series 17 featured a twist called “The Others,” where a separate house contained players trying to earn a spot inside the main house. Andrew was one of the six designated “Others,” who, every week, tried to steal a housemate’s place. However, Andrew Tate wouldn’t survive long enough in Big Brother 17 (UK) to earn a permanent spot in the primary house.

Why did producers expel him from the game?

On Day 4 of Big Brother 17 (UK), fans voted for Andrew Tate and Ryan Ruckledge to temporarily move into the main house to perform a secret mission. They had to target one of the housemates and ensure they were nominated that week. However, Andrew and Ryan constantly butted heads with the other housemates, making it harder to complete their task.

And Andrew’s time in the Big Brother 17 (UK) house would soon end after a pornographic video of him hitting a woman with a belt surfaced online. Fans also dug up Andrew’s homophobic and racist Twitter comments, further persuading producers to expel him from the game.

On Day 7 of Big Brother 17 (UK), producers removed Andrew Tate from the house. Following his expulsion, both Andrew and the woman in the video revealed that the act was consensual. But the damage had already been done. And given his actions in recent years, we believe producers would likely have had to pull Andrew from the game for some other reason.

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Andrew Tate currently faces legal trouble for human trafficking

Following Big Brother 17 (UK), Andrew Tate became a controversial online personality. According to Forbes, he is a self-described misogynist who moved to Romania in 2017 because he desired to live where “corruption is accessible for everybody.” Plus, Andrew believed that Romanian police would be less likely to investigate sexual assault allegations thoroughly.

He constantly boasts his anti-feminist views on his social media accounts and panders to men everywhere. But in late 2022, an online feud with Greta Thunberg led to Romanian police arresting Andrew on human trafficking charges.

Andrew posted a video of himself responding to Thunberg, which allowed the police to find his location. They arrested him, and his brother Tristan, on Dec. 29, 2022. On March 31, 2023, a court ended Andrew and Tristan’s pre-trial detention, and they will be under house arrest until at least late April. The government continues its human trafficking investigation, but they have until June to start a trial.

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