Meredith B. Kile
Netflix’s latest investigative docuseries is diving into a scandal that made headlines nearly a decade ago. In Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Scandal, the streamer interviews executives, employees and former users of the website Ashley Madison — whose admitted purpose was to find affair partners for members currently in a marriage or committed relationship.
The website’s motto was clear — “Life is short. Have an affair.” However, after a data breach in July 2015, thousands of users’ personal information was compromised, with hackers demanding a ransom and later releasing more than 60 gigabytes of damning data.
The hack revealed that it wasn’t just the everyman who was looking to cheat online. Several of the names released were high-profile figures, including reality stars like Josh Duggar, Jionni LaValle and Josh Taekman — calling into question their public relationships and personal fidelity.
Here’s a look at some of the notable names who were mentioned in the three-part series:
Josh Duggar
Josh Duggar was a public name due to his famous megafamily, who were documented on the TLC series 19 Kids and Counting. He later became a conservative political lobbyist and a father of seven with his wife, Anna Duggar.
When the Ashley Madison leak occurred, it was reported that Josh had had two accounts on the site. Gawker reported at the time that someone using a credit card belonging to a “Joshua J. Duggar” paid nearly $1,000 for two different monthly Ashley Madison subscriptions from February 2013 until May 2015, and the billing address on the first account matches Josh’s grandmother Mary’s home in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Josh released a statement on his family’s website following the leak, writing that he had “re-broken the trust” of “family, close friends and the fans of our show” due to his involvement on the site, after previously admitting to molesting five young girls — four of whom were his younger sisters — as a teenager.
“I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife,” he wrote at the time, in a statement that was later edited. “I was hiding my own personal failings. As I am learning the hard way, we have the freedom to choose our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences. I deeply regret all hurt I have caused so many by being such a bad example. I humbly ask for your forgiveness. Please pray for my precious wife Anna and our family during this time.”
In May 2022, Josh was found guilty on two counts of receiving and possessing child pornography and sentenced to sentenced to 151 months in prison.
Jionni LaValle
Jionni LaValle’s claim to fame was through his marriage to Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, of Jersey Shore infamy. It was reported that his email had been used to set up an Ashley Madison account but Polizzi was quick to refute the claims on her Naturally Nicole podcast at the time.
“I’m lucky if he knows how to even use a computer, yet go on Ashley Madison to cheat on me,” she said candidly. “It’s so stupid, and we honestly think, like, someone is trying to f**k with us because this isn’t the first story that Jionni’s been cheating on me. But all these stories never have evidence. There’s never a photo, there’s never text messages, there’s nothing.”
Another reason LaValle wouldn’t go on Ashley Madison? According to Polizzi, he’s so good-looking that he would never need to go on a website to pay to cheat.
“If he wanted to cheat on me, he would go to a club and cheat on me, or go out and cheat on me,” she explained. “He wouldn’t go on Ashley Madison to pay money to cheat on me. Like, he’s not an ugly guy. He’s beautiful, do you know what I mean?”
“He would never do anything to ruin his family, and if he didn’t want to be with me he would tell me,” she added. “He’s a straight-up guy.”
Hunter Biden
Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Scandal features a statement from Hunter Biden — the second-eldest son of President Joe Biden — denying any involvement with the dating site. Hunter, 54, has previously claimed that someone used his old email address to set him up, noting that his emails and social media accounts have been compromised in the past.
“I am certain that the account in question is not mine,” he said in a statement in 2015. “This account was clearly set up by someone else without my knowledge and I first learned about the account in question from the media.”
“From my understanding through press accounts, it is very easy to set up an account without someone’s knowledge as there is no requirement that an email address be verified and I am certain that is what happened in this case,” Hunter added at the time.
Josh Taekman
The Daily Mail reported at the time of the leak that entrepreneur Josh Taekman — and husband of The Real Housewives of New York City star Kristen Taekman — allegedly had an active account since 2011 and possibly spent thousands of dollars in multiple transactions over the years.
The couple released a statement to ET at the time in which Josh admitted to signing up for the site. “I signed up for the site foolishly and ignorantly with a group of friends and I deeply apologize for any embarrassment or pain I have brought to my wife and family,” Josh said in the statement.
“We both look forward to moving past this and getting on with our lives,” the couple’s statement concluded.
Sam Rader
Popular Christian YouTuber Sam Rader, one half of Sam and Nia, admitted to having an Ashley Madison account after it was reported that he was linked to the website.
In a video posted to their YouTube channel titled “Forgiven,” Sam owned up to having a paid subscription to the site.
“As you may have seen, my name has been associated with an Ashley Madison account,” he said at the time. “I’m here to clarify some of this with you guys, ’cause I owe it to you: I did make the account… This is an issue that is in our past. This was before I got onto YouTube. I’ve sought forgiveness to God and he’s forgiven me. So I’ve been completely cleansed of this sin.”
In the new series, Sam admitted that while he didn’t have an affair through the site, he did seek out extramarital sex via massage parlors and strip clubs. The couple, who now share four children, initially parted ways but later reconciled and are still together.
“Seeing all the responsibility Sam took for everything he had done, the hours of counseling and conversation that he sat through, no matter how mad I was at what he had done I could still see this shift that happened to him,” Nia said in the Netflix series. “Yes, the betrayals were out but so was the real Sam.”
The duo ended their appearance with a joint confessional. “Nia, she decided she would give me a second chance. Falling deeply in love is beautiful. But I’ve learned continuing to be deeply in love takes work,” Sam shared. “There’s a lot of things I really do regret, but I don’t regret the hack. It had to happen for where we are at today.”
Michelle “Bombshell” McGee
Michelle McGee became a public figure due to her alleged 2010 affair with West Coast Choppers founder Jesse James — who was married to Sandra Bullock at the time.
In the third episode of Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Scandal, she opened up about unknowingly becoming a public face of the cheating site, claiming that her photo was falsely used to drive traffic.
“Something that was really driven in hard was that I created a profile on Ashley Madison. Didn’t think anything of it at the time. I put my picture on there — it’s from my email address. These guys have not only seen my profile on Ashley Madison, but they actually think they are talking to me,” McGee said in the series. “There’s somebody pretending they’re me on that website.”
Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Scandal is streaming now on Netflix.
RELATED CONTENT:
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings