In 2015, the infidelity dating website “Ashley Madison” was the subject of a data breach by hackers named “The Impact Team.” The hackers threatened to release user data to the world if the website was not terminated.
When the website’s creators refused, the hackers kept their promise. Over 60 gigabytes of company data, including user details, was released.
When this happened, Christian family YouTubers Sam and Nia Rader’s lives were turned upside down. Sam, Nia’s husband, was on the list of men who had made accounts on the site.
The pair agreed to tell all in a now-streaming Netflix documentary on the website and data breach, but upon its release, they weren’t so happy with how their story was depicted.
“It made me look like I traded my adulterous thoughts for YouTube, went from one vice to the next,” Sam tells Allie Beth Stuckey, noting that they had made him say a specific line.
“‘The validation I was seeking outside my marriage was replaced by validation in YouTube.’ I said something along those lines in the documentary. That was a line they fed me and they had me say and I regret saying anything that they fed me,” Sam explains, adding, “Starting YouTube did not save me from adultery.”
In the documentary, they also had hinted that Sam had been sleeping with Nia’s friends.
“A lot of people have asked me privately, even friends and family, have asked me, ‘Which friends did he sleep with?’ and I’m like, ‘He didn’t sleep with any of my friends,’” Nia says. “They kind of just made it sound like he was having all this random sex and he wasn’t.”
Nia was also frustrated that they made it seem as if she immediately forgave Sam for his infidelity.
“They kind of made it seem like it was ‘Ashley Madison,’ confessions, bam, she forgave him because she’s so dumb,” Nia explains. “It was years of hard work and intense counseling and long, hard conversations before I reached a point of freely forgiving him.”
“I held on to it for so long, I questioned him day after day about past and current things. It was a really gruesome journey to actually having freedom from the forgiveness that I was wanting to have,” she adds.
While the couple isn’t pleased with the depiction of their struggles with infidelity, Stuckey can’t help but notice Netflix did end their story on a positive note.
“I was pleased that they did allow y’all to incorporate your faith and that at the end I do think that they showed that there was reconciliation and redemption.”
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