The Ashley Madison hackers released hundreds of emails linked to the man behind the infidelity site that seem to reveal the CEO had multiple affairs, despite claims he stayed faithful to his wife.
The emails sent to and from website founder Noel Biderman were exposed during the second dump of data stolen from Ashley Madison’s parent company, Toronto-based Avid Life Media.
In a note accompanying the emails, which begin in 2012 and seem to detail Biderman’s relationship with a Toronto student and two other women, hackers said: ‘Hey Noel, you can admit it’s real now.’
In the first instance detailed in the leaked emails, Biderman and a Toronto woman corresponded for more than two years and often discussed meeting at hotels and coffeeshops, BuzzFeed reported.
The substance of the emails revealed the woman, first identified as ‘Melisa from the spa,’ was a student with a boyfriend who was being compensated for her time by Biderman.
When their arrangement hit a rocky patch after she felt guilty, Biderman got her a job interview at Avid Life Media for an ‘Spanish/English customer service representative’ and wrote: ‘I will also have a good ‘signing bonus’ for you :).’
She did not end up taking the job and their digital correspondence ceased.
In the second affair detailed in the emails, Biderman wrote to a woman to tell her he would reimburse her for cab fare and that he was ‘fantasizing about later this evening :)’.
In the third set of leaked emails, Biderman tried to set up a meeting with a woman named ‘Mila.’
She gave a phone number that corresponded with an account on TheEroticReview.com.
The review site is ‘dedicated to finding those special women who truly enjoy making the time we spend with them something special’ and provides a ‘powerful and reliable reference tool for those who patronize erotic services on the Internet’.
The content of the sets of emails appear to contradict Biderman’s assertions that he has not cheated on his wife.
The father-of-two formed Ashley Madison with his wife Amanda and he said in a February 2014 interview with the New York Daily News that their marriage was strong.
Two of the apparent affairs in his emails would have occurred or been ongoing at that time.
He said: ‘If I wanted to have an affair, I would have one.’
When he was asked by the London Evening Standard four months later if he had cheated on his wife, Biderman replied: ‘Not yet.’
He added: ‘I’m only ten years into my marriage.
‘We’re incredibly communicative about our sexual needs.
‘But if I woke up beside my wife and it was the 200th day we hadn’t been intimate with one another and it looked like nothing would change, I would cheat so fast.
‘I would cheat long before I would get a divorce.
If you have children that you love and a home that you built together and a future that you planned – why would you give that up just for sex?”
During that interview, Biderman called himself the ‘Google of cheating’ and said the data collected by Ashley Madison would help researchers study infidelity.
Thanks to the data hack, people are studying the site’s clients instead, including Biderman himself.
