Netflix's latest investigative documentary series delves into a scandal that made headlines nearly a decade ago.in Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies, and Scandalthe streamer has interviewed executives, employees and former users of the website Ashley Madison, who admitted that its purpose was to find extramarital affairs for members who were currently married or in committed relationships. It is being
The website's motto was clear – “Life is short. Let's have an affair.” But after a data breach in July 2015, hackers demanded a ransom and over 60 gigabytes of damning data was subsequently released. The personal information of thousands of users was compromised.
This hack revealed that it wasn't just ordinary people trying to commit fraud online. Some of the names released are celebrities, including reality stars such as: josh duggarGioni LaValle and Josh Tekman — calling into question their public relationship and personal loyalties.
Here are some of the notable people mentioned in the three-part series.
josh duggar
Josh Duggar became famous for being famous big familya person chronicled in the TLC series 19 Counting with the kids. he later became a conservative political lobbyist He is also the father of seven children with his wife, Anna Duggar.
When the Ashley Madison leak happened, Josh had two accounts to the site.gawker reported at the time Someone using “Joshua J. Duggar's” credit card paid nearly $1,000 for two different monthly subscriptions to Ashley Madison between February 2013 and May 2015, including the first The billing address on the account matched Josh's grandmother Mary's home in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Josh released a statement on his family's website after the leak, writing that he had “again betrayed the trust” of his “family, close friends, and fans of the show” by his involvement on the site, which he had previously acknowledged. sexually abuse five young girls — four of them were his younger sisters — as teenagers.
“I was the biggest hypocrite ever. While upholding my faith and family values, I spent the last few years secretly watching pornography on the internet. And this secretly turned into an addiction, and my wife I became unfaithful to him,” he wrote at the time. , in a later edited statement. “I was hiding my own personal shortcomings. As I'm learning the hard way, we have the freedom to choose our actions, but we don't get to choose our outcomes. I deeply regret hurting so many people with such an attitude.'' This is a bad example, so please forgive me. Please pray for my precious wife Anna and our family during this time. ”
In May 2022, Josh was convicted of a crime He was sentenced to 151 months in prison for two counts of receiving and possessing child pornography.
Gioni Laval
Gioni Laval's fame came from his marriage to Nicole “Snooki” Polizziof jersey shore stigma.It was reported that his email was used to set up an Ashley Madison account, but Polizzi I immediately refuted that claim. about her Of course Nicole Podcast at the time.
“I'm lucky if he even knows how to use a computer and still tries to fool me like Ashley Madison,” she said candidly. “It's so stupid. We honestly think someone is trying to cheat on us, because this isn't the first time we've heard about Jionni cheating on me. But… , there's no evidence for all these stories. There's no pictures, there's never any.”
Another reason LaVar won't face Ashley Madison? According to Mr. Polizzi, he is so handsome that he would never have to go to a website and pay money to commit a scam.
“If he wanted to cheat on me, he'd go to a club and cheat on me, or he'd go out and cheat on me,” she explained. “He's not going to pay Ashley Madison to fool me. Like, he's not an ugly guy. He's beautiful, you know what I'm saying?”
“He would never do anything to destroy his family and if he didn't want to be with me he would say so,” she added. “He's an honest person.”
hunter biden
Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies, and Scandal This article includes a statement from Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's second son, denying any involvement in the dating site. Hunter, 54, previously claimed that someone set him up using his old email address, noting that his email and social media accounts have been compromised in the past.
“I am confident that the account in question is not mine,” he said in a statement in 2015, adding, “This account was clearly opened by someone else without my knowledge, and the account in question is I first learned about it from the media.”
“From what I understand through the press, it's very easy for someone to set up an account without their knowledge because there's no need to verify an email address, and I'm confident that's what happened in this case.” ,” Hunter added at the time.
Josh Techman
daily mail report At the time of the leak, entrepreneur Josh Tekman –'s husband real housewives of new york city star Kristen Techman — reportedly had an active account since 2011 and may have spent thousands of dollars on multiple trades over the years.
The couple released a statement to ET at the time confirming that Josh had signed up to the site. “I deeply apologize for the embarrassment and pain I caused his wife and family by foolishly and ignorantly signing up to the site with a group of friends,” Josh said in a statement.
“We both look forward to moving beyond this situation and moving on with our lives,” the couple concluded in a statement.
Sam Rader
Popular Christian YouTuber Sam Rader, Sam and Nia's halves have admitted to having Ashley Madison accounts after it was reported that they were linked to the website.
In a video titled “Forgiven” posted on his YouTube channel, Sam admitted to having a paid subscription to the site.
“As you can see, my name is associated with the Ashley Madison account,” he said at the time. “I'm here to explain this to you guys because I owe you guys. I'm the one who created the account…this is an issue in our past. This This was before I started YouTube. I asked God for forgiveness, and He forgave me, and I was completely cleansed from this sin. ”
In the new series, Sam admitted that although he did not have an affair through the site, he did seek out extramarital sex through massage parlors and strip clubs. The couple, who now have four children, initially separated but later reconciled and are still together.
“Seeing how Sam took responsibility for everything he did, and the hours and hours of counseling and conversations he had with him, even if I was responsible for everything he did. No matter how angry I was, I still understood this change in him,” Nia said. Netflix series. “Yes, the betrayal was found out, but so was the real Sam.”
The two ended their appearance with a joint confession. “Nia, she decided to give me another chance. I learned that falling deeply in love is a beautiful thing, but it takes work to stay deeply in love,” Sam said. “There's a lot of things I really regret, but I don't regret the hack. It needed to happen for us to be where we are today.”
Michelle “Bomb” McGee
Michelle McGee became famous for her 2010 alleged affair with West Coast Choppers founder Jesse James. sandra bullock at that time.
In the third episode of Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies, Scandal, She claimed her photo was mistakenly used to drive traffic and opened up about unknowingly becoming the public face of the cheating site.
“The thing that really pushed me was that I created an Ashley Madison profile. I didn't think anything of it at the time. I put my picture on there. It was sent from my email address. They don't just look at my profile and think they're talking about Ashley Madison, but they're actually talking to me,'' McGee said on the series. “There's someone pretending to be me on that website.”
Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies, and Scandal is now streaming on Netflix.
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