The Most Famous Celebs Called Out In The Ashley Madison Netflix Doc

The Ashley Madison breach was major news back in 2015, thanks in no small part to the fact that a number of well-known names — from reality stars, to content creators, and even Joe Biden's youngest son — were involved. At the time, many whose names were leaked denied using the site (shocker). However, in the wake of the release Netflix's new documentary, "Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Cyber Attacks," they're in the spotlight once more. 

The first of the celebs named in the data breach to address the situation when it first hit was "14 Children and Pregnant Again" alum Josh Duggar. In a since-deleted statement issued to the official Duggar family website on August 20, 2015, Josh admitted to a pornography addiction, as well as cheating on his wife, Anna Renee Duggar — though, as noted by Entertainment Weekly, he never actually copped to using Ashley Madison specifically. Nevertheless, he apologized to his family and anyone who saw him as a role model. "I deeply regret all hurt I have caused so many by being such a bad example," he said.

Of course, the Ashley Madison scandal wasn't the last time the reality star would be involved in dodgy dealings. In April 2021, he was arrested for accessing child pornography two years prior. Duggar has since gone to prison for his crimes. As Ashley Madison's tagline said, life is short — but it's even shorter when you're spending a good portion of it incarcerated. 

As was noted in episode 2 of "Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Cyber Attacks," (51:11), while Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi's husband, Jionni LaValle, was implicated in the scandal back in 2015, she didn't buy that he was actually involved. In fact, that was something she stuck by in a number of statements on the matter. 

Polizzi's first response came in the form of an Instagram post shared to her account on August 25, 2015. In it, Polizzi shared that initially she didn't even want to give the rumor any air, as she knew it wasn't true. However, things changed when she saw just how big the story became. "The fact that the tabloids can deliberately make stories up and print things like, 'Jionni LaValle ALLEGEDLY and MAY HAVE signed up on Ashley Madison' is absurd," she wrote. The "Jersey Shore" star finished the post by reaffirming her love for her husband, and with the sassy quip, "Even though I'm a pain in your a**, I know you would never cheat on me. Especially on a lame a** website."

The reality star later doubled down on her stance in an episode of her podcast at the time, "Naturally Nicole with Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi." In it, she pointed out that her husband was attractive enough to cheat without using a website to do it. Solid logic, we guess!

Another reality star's husband to have been implicated in the scandal? Josh Taekman, who some may remember made a few appearances alongside his wife, Kristen Taekman, on "The Real Housewives of New York." The show didn't exactly present Josh as the world's best husband — after all, the couple even went to therapy in one episode, and one clip ahead of the session showed him tell Kristen the reason he wasn't present was because he never got home to a cooked meal. Big yikes. However, we digress. 

As seen in a clip from "Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Cyber Attacks," (35:50) Taekman copped to having an account fairly quickly. He did so in a statement to E! News, explaining, "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." It's worth noting that Josh and Kristen's former "RHONY" co-star Heather Thompson shared in an interview with Us Weekly that him getting an account with his friends checked out. "If you knew Josh the way I know him, you'd be completely like, 'Of course he would sign up for that with his buddies!' That's a total Josh thing to do!" she told the outlet. 

Kristen seems to be in agreement there. She's still with her husband after the scandal, and in 2023, she told People she never doubted his faithfulness. 

Shifting away from reality stars, another big name leaked in the Ashley Madison scandal was none other than Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. While Hunter certainly has a pretty scandalous history, when it came to Ashley Madison, he unequivocally denied it.

While "Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Cyber Attacks" noted Hunter Biden as one of the more prominent people whose email address was linked to the website, the then-vice-president's son didn't waste any time putting out a statement that he had nothing to do with it. In fact, he claimed he hadn't even known anything about the account until reports hit the news. "This account was clearly set up by someone else without my knowledge," he told CNN. 

There are still a ton of sketchy details relating to Hunter's potential involvement in the scandal. For starters, Breitbart published the details of the account in question, which showed the account holder's birth year as 1980. Hunter was born in 1970. That could hint to it being a fake account, for sure. However, a subsequent report by Breitbart claimed that the location the credit card payment made to set up the account was in pretty close range to where Hunter had previously worked as a lecturer. Of course, that could still have been someone trying to set him up. However, Hunter never made a comment on the matter. 

One of the famous faces named in the Ashley Madison scandal who didn't deny his involvement was YouTuber, Sam Rader. Yup — that would be the Christian YouTuber who shares his channel with his wife, Nia Rader. Unsurprisingly, this became one of the biggest scandals to ever hit YouTube. 

Sam admitted to having an account in a YouTube video alongside his wife, Nia Rader. "I did make the account. I made the account two years ago," he revealed (via Mamamia). He went on to add that he'd already admitted to opening the account to his church, Nia, and God prior to the scandal making the news, and that he'd been forgiven all 'round. He also added that despite opening the account, he never actually had an affair with anyone.

Sam and Nia ended up removing the video from their channel, but went on to be actively involved in "Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Cyber Attacks." In fact, it was in the documentary that they revealed the Ashley Madison scandal had actually been the least of their worries as a couple. As Sam revealed in the final episode, he actually did have affairs — several of them, both physical and emotional, throughout their relationship. Nia revealed that they ultimately separated for a time, and she had serious doubts about getting back together. However, they did eventually did reconcile. Well, if the scandal prompted Sam's honesty, we guess Ashley Madison gets snaps for something.

Finally, we have Michelle "Bombshell" McGee. McGee first made headlines in 2010, when it emerged that she'd had an affair with Sandra Bullock's now-ex-husband, Jesse James. However, 2010 marked a significant year for McGee for another reason, too: it marked the year she was approached by Ashley Madison. 

As McGee revealed in the third and final episode of "Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Cyber Attacks," the company contacted her in the wake of the media uproar surrounding the affair with James, and asked to use her image. She was also tasked with setting up her own account, which she did, but left it at that. However, the following year, she realized the site was using her account to pose as her and talk to account holders. McGee only realized this when a man arrived at her dressing room at the strip club she was working at, with a gift. After asking how they knew each other, he mentioned that they spoke on the website, and that's how she put two and two together.

Well, it certainly seems as though Ashley Madison was a sleazy operation, from the account holders who used it, to the people behind it. Who would have thought?