Sun, Cigars, and Sexism: How Spain's Marbella Became a Hotspot for 'Manosphere' Influencers

On a dusky evening at the end of September, a group of men dressed in tailored suits and crisp shirts, heavy watches glinting from their wrists, gathered on a rooftop in Marbella. As they smoked cigars and swirled spirits in short-stemmed glasses, it could have been any plush private party in the Spanish coastal city.

But this was billed as a particularly exclusive occasion: The guests had secured just 25 coveted spots at the first European tasting of Tristan Tate’s new tequila. Social media footage of the event shows Tate video-calling into the party, smiling in a burgundy suit, and inviting the attendees to join a toast.  

Tristan and his brother Andrew Tate remain influential figures at the center of the so-called manosphere, a diffuse ecosystem of male online communities which has gained a massive following among young men and boys, and has been heavily criticized for denigrating and demonizing women. (The British-American Tate brothers also face criminal charges for human trafficking and rape in the U.K. and are being criminally investigated in Romania for trafficking and forming an organized crime group — allegations they strongly deny.)

Now, in Marbella, the manosphere is putting down real-world roots. 

Through tracking social media connections, business ventures, and public and private events, reporters found the sun-drenched city on Spain’s Costa del Sol — famed as a haunt for celebrities, oligarchs, and organized crime — has become a magnet for male influencers and self-described entrepreneurs, including some from the Tates’ personal and professional circle.

Some in this community are regular visitors to Marbella, while others have fully relocated there. As well as featuring in each other’s online content, including interviewing each other for podcasts and videos, they network together in real life at social and business events. Some have openly expressed misogynistic views; others have given a platform to those who express them. They use Marbella and its reputation for glamour and wealth to enhance their personal brands.

“It’s no coincidence this is happening in a place like Marbella, where economic status and displays of power form the backbone of social relations,” said Spain-based social psychologist Jesús Moreno, who is head of social participation at Fundación Iniciativa Social in Seville, the capital of the Andalusia region which includes Marbella. The organization focuses on gender equality, among other social issues.

Moreno pointed out that while all-male social communities are nothing new, from hunting groups to sports clubs, the danger here is that they will embolden the manosphere's already toxic views.  

“These interactions risk hardening into sect-like dynamics that continually reinforce their misogynistic and anti-feminist narratives,” he said. 

The Marbella manosphere figures promote self-improvement tenets including physical fitness and the importance of self-made financial success. But some also lapse into misogynistic references to women in their public content: “whore,” “pussy,” “thing.”  

Their move into Marbella comes against a backdrop of concern in Spain that misogyny has entered mainstream public discourse. 

Far-right Vox is now the third-largest party in Spain’s national parliament and Andalusia’s regional parliament. As part of its platform it has said that Spain’s pioneering gender violence law, which seeks to protect women from violence by partners or former partners, should be rolled back because it discriminates against men.

Andalusian feminist activist Pamela Palenciano pointed to gender-based violence as one of the key rallying cries shared by the online manosphere and the Spanish far right. 

“‘Violence has no gender,’ ‘women abuse too,’ ‘there are male victims nobody talks about,’ ‘the law is unfair,’ are some of the messages pushed by the far right,” she said. 

“All of that is echoed by YouTubers, who hype up their young fans, and those fans then repeat the same discourse in their schools.”

Of Glamour And Manfluencers

Set between the craggy slopes of the Sierra Blanca and long stretches of sandy Mediterranean coast, Marbella gained a reputation for glamour and celebrity in the 1950s and 60s, when Hollywood stars like Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant sought out the iconic Marbella Club hotel.

Since then, movie stars, sports stars, and world-famous musicians have all reportedly snapped up properties there, although the city’s reputation as a crime hub has also grown. One former Spanish police officer who worked on international crime for more than 20 years described Marbella as “the Wall Street of organized crime” in an interview with Diario Sur earlier this year, saying that any self-respecting criminal organization needed an outpost there.

The Andalusia region abolished its wealth tax in 2022, easing the path for investors including foreigners. Marbella and its neighboring town Benahavís now claim six of the top 10 most expensive streets in Spain, according to Spanish real estate website Idealista. Multi-million-dollar homes have reportedly been snapped up off-plan at a new complex designed by Dolce & Gabbana in the hills overlooking Marbella’s coastal “Golden Mile.” 

Elisa García Mingo, a sociologist from the Complutense University of Madrid whose work has focused on the manosphere in Spain, said that Marbella was a fit for content creators who need to be seen in all the right places: “Marbella is where the Spanish and foreign jet set have been living for 50 years. It's the place for the rich, the mega-rich, and it's a place of ostentation.” 

Tristan Tate’s tequila party took place in the hills behind Puerto Banús, famed for its yacht-filled marina, on a terrace that is part of a new members’ club project launched by a friend of Andrew Tate called Luke Barnatt.

The British former mixed martial arts fighter has described himself as part of the “leadership” of Tate’s War Room, which calls itself “a global network in which exemplars of individualism work to free the modern man from socially induced incarceration” and costs almost $8,000 to join. 

Barnatt regularly hosts a cigar connoisseurs club for male entrepreneurs on the roof terrace where the tequila party happened. Subscriptions cost up to 300 euros (around $350) a month, offering: “An exclusive education platform where aspiring connoisseurs and experienced aficionados forge powerful connections over the world's finest cigars.” The website greets visitors with the message: “Welcome to the brotherhood.”

Access to the roof terrace is also part of membership packages for Marbella Casa Creative, another members-only club which Barnatt announced in January. It promises a “community of visionaries” with memberships advertised as costing between 6,000 to 25,000 euros. Publicly listed members include retired porn star Stirling Cooper, who describes himself as “The World’s #1 Sex Coach for Men” and has nearly 400,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Cooper was recently criticized for comments he made on how he “disciplines” women he dates. An investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age said that footage, photos, and insider accounts had placed Cooper at key neo-Nazi meetings in Australia and that he was part of a recruitment drive targeting young men. He has appeared in videos with the Tate brothers and has been pictured with Luke Barnatt on his trips to Marbella.

Barnatt and another British man, Bradley Marchant, who describes himself on LinkedIn as a business growth strategist and is listed as a member of Casa Creative, have recently launched a range of Marbella projects together, including a cafe, a podcast studio, and a film production company called A Beautiful Kill.

Cooper, Barnatt, Marchant, and the Tate brothers did not respond to requests for comment. 

Also at Tate’s tequila launch in Marbella was Gabriel Rapisarda, who runs the Switzerland-based drinks firm that distributes Tristan Tate’s tequila.

Rapisarda's firm distributes a beer brand from another well-known manosphere figure, Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor. Despite a career checkered by violence outside the ring, Marbella welcomed McGregor last year as host of a Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship event.  

Since then, he has been found liable for sexual assault by a jury in a civil case in Ireland. Andrew Tate called the jury’s finding “bullshit” and later endorsed the fighter’s short-lived bid for the Irish presidency. McGregor lost an appeal against the assault decision in July.

McGregor and Rapisarda also did not respond to requests for comment. 

Alongside Barnatt, Marchant, and Rapisarda at the tequila party were mainly non-Spanish Marbella-based men emblematic of a vision of success espoused by manosphere figures like the Tates, who focus on the importance of money and physical appearance: One guest was offering courses promising wealth and an escape from the rat race through forex trading; another was a self-proclaimed “closer” who boasted he could secure thousands in deals in two days. There was also a fitness coach and a bespoke tailor.

Male influencers and entrepreneurs in Marbella are using what Marie Heřmanová, a social anthropologist and research fellow at University College London, describes as a tried and tested formula to create a self-promoting community. “Influencers cooperate strategically: they form hubs, appear on each other’s podcasts, and create a parallel media ecosystem that bypasses traditional journalism. This makes them extremely effective,” she said.

For others, Marbella is a simple shorthand for luxury and success. Young British influencer Harrison Sullivan, known on social media as HSTikkyTokky, used Marbella as a glamorous backdrop until his arrest in the U.K. in October in connection with a crash reportedly involving a McLaren supercar.

Sullivan was given a 12-month suspended prison sentence by a British court earlier this month after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and driving while uninsured, and is under curfew for three months and electronically tagged. Sullivan is also under investigation in Spain for attacking a man in a nightclub with a glass.

He had gained an online following with videos on fitness, money-making, and sex, referring to women as “things.”

The Normalization Of Misogyny

Social anthropologist Heřmanová said that wrapping misogyny in the language of self-improvement has become a widespread and normalized part of the manosphere.

“Tate was the radical tip of the spear, but once the language entered the mainstream, it no longer required him. He made misogynistic, hyper-masculine influencer culture visible and mainstream, even though many now see him as too radical,” she said. 

“Influencers step in with alternative promises: If you hustle, get rich, dominate women, then you can live a good life.”

Marbella-based real estate agent Jesse Meester, a Dutch actor who appeared in the U.S. reality TV show “90-Day Fiancé,” hosts a podcast covering health, business, and life lessons that features both male and female guests. But it also lapses into views of women that are the touchstone of some manosphere communities. 

In an episode with Luke Barnatt, the two men shoot the breeze over how “high-value men” get sucked in by women and don’t set good enough standards when choosing a partner. Barnatt warns a relationship should not be with “some whore who’s going to take everything from you.” (He did not respond to a request for comment on whether he stood by this remark or believed it to be misogynistic). 

Later in the podcast episode an earnest Meester bemoaned how men are often “absolutely destroyed or make the wrong life decisions because of a woman, because of a pussy.”

Meester, who has 1.3 million Instagram followers and whose eponymous real estate business lists properties with price tags up to 8.5 million euros on its website, spoke openly with reporters in Marbella on a range of topics, from his career path to his faith in God and his core values.

He said he disagreed with Andrew Tate’s attitude to women because it prioritized “pleasure over responsibility” and criticized men who control women’s money — but he also said women were to blame for allowing that to happen. 

“It's financial manipulation or abuse, some people say. But I disagree with that because the woman also chooses that. So it's like if you choose a man to do that, it's not really abuse,”  Meester said.

Meester did not respond to follow-up questions about whether he thought his remark on the podcast or in his comments to reporters had been misogynistic.

Dismissing abuse and violence against women, including the narrative that false claims are widespread, is a message promoted by some manosphere figures and groups. Andrew Tate has said that women bear some responsibility for allowing themselves to be raped.

Pumping Iron in The Marbella Sun 

Recent studies have signaled a rising sense of apathy and pessimism among young men in Europe and a growing belief that the quest for equality for women has ended up discriminating against men.

Zuzana Očenášová, a researcher at the the Slovak Academy of Sciences who studies gender equality, said that influencers are playing on a deep identity crisis as male roles diversify: "While some may view this as an opportunity to fulfil their potential, as they do not have to try to 'fit' into a predefined box, others may view it as unsettling, perceiving that various, and often contradictory, expectations are placed upon them."

Some prominent manosphere figures, including ex-kickboxer Andrew Tate, promote physical strength as a way that men can take back control of their lives and find purpose and structure. Marbella’s beaches, open-air gyms, and slick sports clubs make it an on-brand destination for that message. 

British influencer and entrepreneur Mike Thurston, who has 1.6 million subscribers on YouTube and 1.3 followers on Instagram as well as a fitness coaching platform and clothing line, has filmed himself shirtless and pumping weights in Marbella.

While his focus is fitness, Thurston has also hosted two viral video interviews with Andrew Tate, the second of which was posted in Dubai in early 2025. The interview takes place in Tate’s Bugatti and covers topics from Tate’s views on European politics to his response to the criminal allegations against him. 

“Once they decide to take a man down, they call 100 ex-girlfriends or 100 women you knew and they only need a 1 percent success rate. They only need one out of the 100. One out of a thousand. They can go with a 0.1 percent success rate. If they can get one silly bitch to lie, now you’re fucked. It’s crazy because 27 percent of women are on anti-depressants. Because they’re basically clinically nuts. So 27 of that 100 can’t even think straight ‘cos they’re on drugs,” Tate tells Thurston.

As with much in the manosphere, access to Thurston’s specialist knowledge and the chance to rub shoulders with like-minded people comes at a price. 

Thurston has run business retreats in Dubai and Marbella which promote themselves as bringing together entrepreneurs to network and set goals. One promotion for his Marbella Mastermind put the cost of attendance at 9,000 British pounds (about $11,800).

A fellow fitness influencer and friend of Thurston, Irish entrepreneur Rob Lipsett, who runs an online fitness, business, and life coaching program, also held a “mastermind” networking event in a luxury Marbella home in June this year that promised access to an “elite community” of industry leaders and investors.

Thurston and Lipsett are both publicly listed as members of the Marbella Casa Creative members club. Neither responded to requests for comment.

Lipsett, who is reportedly a friend of Conor McGregor and has hosted Meester, Barnatt, and Cooper on his podcast, recently posted about how he is planning more offline meetups in the future. 

“Feels like all the stuff you post online suddenly becomes real when you’re in the same room,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “If you want to get fitter, or actually start making money online instead of just scrolling all day, this is where it happens."

This article was developed with the support of Journalismfund Europe.