In our internet-dating age, we’re pretty used to everything, and everyone, being accessible at the touch of a button. Looking for a sober partner? There’s an app for that. Vegan seeking a fellow animal lover? There’s an app for that too. We could go on.
But back in the early 2000s, when all this stuff was still new and exciting, a dating website called Ashley Madison took the internet by storm. The website, which was named after the two most popular girls names at the time, was designed to match married people looking to have an affair, summed up by the slogan ‘life is short. Have an affair.’ The site attracted more than 37 million people interested in adultery, but the fantasy all came crashing down in 2015 when a hack leaked their intimate data – leaving three million users secrets exposed to their unsuspecting families. Among those listed were celebrities and politicians, and at least two people took their own lives as a result.
A new Netflix documentary, Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal, charts the story of the mysterious hack and its devastating fallout which wrecked marriages and destroyed lives. One of couples who found themselves embroiled in the scandal were popular YouTubers Sam and Nia Rader, who faced emotional devastation in their marriage after Sam's information appeared as part of the leak.
Naturally, this means everyone is searching for what happened between Sam and Nia. ‘Sam and Nia’ is a breakout search term under the documentary name on Google, and people are searching for whether they are still together. Here’s everything we know about the couple...
Who are Sam and Nia Rader?
Sam and Nia are a married Christian couple from Terrell in Texas who have a popular YouTube channel. They got married when Sam was 24 and Nia was 20, and shared videos which documented life with their four children.
The pair went viral in 2014 after they recorded a video of them lip syncing the song ‘Love Is an Open Door’ from Disney’s Frozen, which generated 22 million views. The couple currently have 2.5 million subscribers on their YouTube channel, which documents their ‘ups, the downs, the fun and the fails.’
What happened to Sam and Nia Rader?
Sam was one of the users whose name and personal details was listed on Ashley Madison after it was hacked. Sam admitted to using the site in 2015 and issued a public apology via the couple’s YouTube account.
'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. I made the account two years ago. This is an issue that is in our past. This was before I got onto YouTube.’
He continued ‘This was brought to my wife's attention. She has forgiven me for this mistake that I made in opening the account. I have sought forgiveness from God and he has forgiven me, so I have been completely cleansed of this sin.’
In the video, Sam denied having ever cheated on Nia or met up with anyone he met on Ashley Madison, adding that he created the account out of ‘fleshly desires and simple curiosity.’
Are Sam and Nia Rader still together?
Yes, Sam and Nia are still together, and they post regularly on their YouTube channel and Instagram page. They also welcomed a daughter together in 2016, one year after the Ashley Madison scandal.
In Sam's apology video from 2015, Nia mentioned that she had forgiven her husband. 'Our marriage is worth fighting for and it always will be,' she said. 'Marriage is the real deal and it’s been sealed and it’s worth fighting for, it always will be.'
What has Sam Rader said in the Netflix documentary?
Sam and Nia both appear in the Netflix documentary, where they address the fallout from the Ashley Madison scandal. Ahead of the documentary's release, they posted a video on their shared YouTube channel called ‘Our Lives Will Never be the Same…We’re coming to Netflix’, where Sam explained that he had been unable to sleep ahead of the documentary. I haven’t been able to sleep for the past couple of days, it's been rough,' he said.
In the documentary, Sam explains how he had a ‘beautiful life’, but it suddenly became inundated with responsibilities, such as paying bills, keeping up with finances and getting into debt. ‘I didn’t want to leave my family, but I wanted something exciting in my life,’ he said. Sam goes on to describe signing up to Ashley Madison as 'one of the biggest mistakes’ of his life.
'There was a lot I was seeking through Ashley Madison - mostly validation from other women,' he said. 'Ashley Madison was just a way for me to find women who'd be attracted to me so I could suck up their validation.'
After coming to terms with what happened, Nia agreed to go to marriage counselling with Sam and their pastor and give their marriage a second chance. In the documentary, she says 'No matter how mad I was at what he had done, I could still see this shift that happened in him.'
Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal is available to stream on Netflix now.