A British woman who says she was in a relationship with controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate has told the BBC how he persuaded her to work for his company and became violent and controlling over time.
"It's very difficult because I don't feel like a victim - all the choices I made were of my [own] free will. He didn't kidnap me, put me in a bag, throw me in the back of a truck and drive me there," says Sophie.
"But he knew what he was doing. At what point does emotional or psychological manipulation turn into coercion?".
Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are in custody in Romania as police investigate allegations of rape and human trafficking.
Prosecutors allege the two recruited victims by seducing them and lying to them about wanting to have a relationship - what police called the "lover's method."
The victims were then forced or manipulated into working in adult entertainment rooms.
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Sophie, which is not her real name, says that's exactly what happened to her.
She is now assisting prosecutors in their investigation.
She told BBC Radio 4 that Tate contacted her on Facebook out of the blue and was very charming.
"He kind of tricked me into believing that he was someone I could trust and someone who genuinely wanted to build a relationship with me," she explains.
After corresponding with him on Facebook, she agreed to travel to his home in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.
"I was at a stage in my life where everything was a bit boring and stuck, and this idea of adventure seemed appealing," she explains.
As their relationship developed, Sophie regularly visited the Tate in Romania.
He told her he wanted her to be his girlfriend, but soon he started asking her to work for him.
"He told me several times, 'You should agree, you'd make a fortune, but you don't have to if you don't want to do it. I'm making enough money,'" Sofi recalls.
"But he always reminded me that there was an option and it turned into, 'If you love me, you'll do it. If you care about me, you will... we can make all that money'.
"And he ended up making me think, 'Maybe he's right, maybe I should be doing this.'"
Sophie had previously worked in the adult entertainment industry, so she was open to the suggestion.
But she says she felt pressured and worried she might lose him.
On a now-deleted page on his website, Tate described how he ran a webcam business, which largely matches what Sophie says.
This is how Tate described the job: "To meet a girl, go on a few dates, sleep with her... to make her fall in love with me, where she would do whatever I told her."
The video continues: "And then, I turn on the webcam, I record so that we can become rich together."
In the decade he says he's been running the studio, he claims more than half of his employees have been his girlfriends and that none of them had been in the adult entertainment industry before they met him.
Sofia's claims are different.
Sophie says she earned about £800 (about €900) for six hours of work, of which Tate would take 50 percent.
Industry representatives in Romania told the BBC that this is not unusual for webcam studios.
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Sophie says that over time, Tate's behavior towards her has changed in a negative way.
She claims that he increasingly controlled her, fined her if she went out without his permission, and became violent.
"There was some disagreement ... he pushed me against the wall and slapped me really hard and called me 'whore,'" she says.
She added that rough sex turned into something she didn't agree to.
"Most of the violence was sexual, that's obviously something he deals with."
"He likes to feel like he has complete control over a woman and feels like he could take their life at any second." It turns him on sexually," she explains.
"I was determined only to please him and only to make him happy.
"But when I put the film back, on one occasion he choked me until I passed out and I think he panicked then because he knew he had gone too far."
The BBC has seen messages and listened to voice recordings exchanged between Sophie and Andrew Tate which match her claims about his behavior and desire to be in control.
support her claims of controlled behavior.
Sophie says she eventually left the relationship after realizing for a moment that she didn't like the "constant feeling of inferiority to him".
"I realized that I can no longer live like that and that it is not normal. I had to get away from it," she explains.
"I remember I was at work and I was so overwhelmed by emotions that I had never felt such darkness before."
She describes Tate as "a very complex man" who was quite different from the persona he presented online.
Tate was known for his juicy expletives, often filmed smoking a cigar or surrounded by his supercars.
"He is very manipulative, he lacks any empathy. He is a narcissist, he is 100 percent," she says.
"I don't think he's emotionally capable of feeling love for anyone or anything, not even his family, not even his brother - there's just nothing.
"In the space in our brain where we feel love and compassion and empathy... [in his] it's just a hole, there's nothing there."
The BBC put the allegations to Tate through his lawyer, but Matea Petrescu, in charge of the Tate brothers' media relations, said she would not comment on the claims.
Investigators in Romania have confirmed that six women have been identified as potential victims of human trafficking.
But last month, two women publicly denied being abused by the Tate brothers, while other women spoke positively to the BBC about their time with Tate.
But Sophie says some of them are women Tate treated really well, while others are still under his control.
"He's always one step ahead," she says.
"He's mindful of the fact that he needs as many great reviews as negative to defend himself.
“Also, there will be girls who are so in love with him and so brainwashed that they will never say a bad word against him. There will be those who will speak out of fear because he threatens."
The police have not yet filed any charges against the brothers, who have been in custody together with two Romanian women since December 29.
They have denied the allegations against them.
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