Guy Fieri and Andrew Tate Julia Demaree Nikhinson - Pool/Getty Images; Ian Maule/Getty Images Guy Fieri is setting the record straight.
The Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives host faced backlash after a video of him greeting the controversial “manosphere” influencer brothers, Andrew and Tristan Tate, at UFC 327 in Miami on Saturday night went viral.
In the footage, Fieri is seen shaking the brothers’ hands, pulling Andrew in for a shoulder bump and briefly talking. However, the Food Network star said the interaction was simply him being polite and that he did not know who they were at the time.
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“I’m seeing all of your comments about the photo from Saturday’s UFC event and all I can say is that I’m devastated,” Fieri wrote on X on Tuesday. “I was there to see the fights and when I was walking through the venue, the Tate brothers stood up and said hello and that’s when the exchanged happened.”
He continued: “I did not know them or about them before that moment. I’ll never pretend to be a perfect person but let me be crystal clear, I do not know the Tate brothers nor do I support them in any way.”
Andrew and Tristan Tate are former kickboxers who built a large online following by sharing hyper-masculine and misogynistic content. Andrew Tate first rose to prominence on the U.K. reality show Big Brother in 2016 but was removed after just six days after footage surfaced appearing to show him attacking a woman.
The brothers, born in the United States but who moved to the United Kingdom as children, hold dual citizenship. They are under criminal investigations in Britain and Romania. In the U.S., they have been under investigation by Homeland Security anti-trafficking agents and federal prosecutors since 2023, according to The New York Times.
They were charged with 21 crimes in the U.K., including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking. Reuters recently reported that a Romanian court lifted all preventative judicial control measures as investigations continue. The brothers have denied all wrongdoing.
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