Topics: Documentaries, Netflix, TV And Film, Sex and Relationships, Social Media, Life, Real Life, US News
Netflix's latest jaw-dropping documentary has shocked viewers at every turn - especially when divuging the details of a couple at the centre of it.
The three part docuseries follows the scandal of how hackers exposed the details of 32 million unfaithful married people in 2015.
Ashley Madison launched in 2001 and made worldwide news when a group of unknown hackers, known only as 'The Impact Team', leaked the sensitive information that ruined marriages and outed cheaters.
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High profile people, including TV stars and US government officials, are thought to have been affected.
Unbelievably, the website is still running today and bears the tagline: "Life is short. Have an affair."
The documentary, Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal, hears first-hand from people affected by the leak, including people who were Ashley Madison customers.
The couple at the centre of the Netflix documentary, Sam and Nia Raden, were a picture-perfect Christian couple that often made YouTube videos about their marriage.
This illusion was shattered when Sam was outed as a member.
Sam admits in the documentary that he had no desire to leave his wife but wanted something 'exciting' in his life.
He looks back at the decision to use his 'real details' on the website as a mistake.
Ultimately, wife Nia forgave Sam despite feeling betrayed, as he had not met with any other women in real life.
Nia told Netflix's Tudum: "It’s still shocking to me that things like [Ashley Madison] exist."
She added: “I was surprised that Sam would have been drawn to a website like that in the first place, because it was outside of his usual morals and character.”
The two are still married and refused to be rocked by the scandal.
"It’s worth fighting to fix your marriage", Nia added.
Director Toby Paton has expressed a feeling of empathy towards those who were signed up to Ashley Madison before the leak.
He told Variety: "Rather than berating people who joined Ashley Madison, we were much more interested in exploring why they were drawn to the site. What were they looking for? What was going on in their relationships? And, crucially: What was their partner’s side of the story?"
He then added: "The thing I think [Nia] wanted to more talk about was the importance of forgiveness and how we should try and understand the struggles and difficulties that people are going through.
"I think Sam, in particular, felt like it was the right time for him to really finally come clean and really confess the full truth of what had gone on. Because he says things in the series that he’s not really told anyone before - or certainly not spoken publicly about before."
Not everybody feels as empathetic, though.
One person wrote on X: "Watching the Ashley Madison doc on Netflix and hearing this grown man who had kids and a wife said life got monotonous/not exciting after kids and married life. So instead of getting a hobby, you have an affair. Right…right…"
Another added: "Sam is openly saying that he seeked validation from women outside of his wife until he got validation from an audience thinking him and his wife were adorable so he leaned into it solely for the attention- neither scenario is he a good husband and yet she stayed?"
Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal is streaming on Netflix now.
