He has confessed his sins. Sam Rader of viral Christian vlogging couple Sam and Nia admitted in a new YouTube video on Friday, Aug. 21, that he did indeed have a subscription to cheating website AshleyMadison.com. The confession came shortly after The Daily Mail reported that based on the subscriber data hackers stole from the website and then released on Tuesday, it appeared the 29-year-old had used the controversial service.
“As you may have seen, my name has been associated with an Ashley Madison account,” Sam, who is married to Nia, said in the video. “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 went on to add that Nia, 26, with whom he has two young children, had already forgiven him for opening the account, as has God.
“I’ve sought forgiveness to God and he’s forgiven me,” he said. “So I’ve been completely cleansed of this sin.”
Sam also emphasized that he never actually met with anyone through Ashley Madison. “I’ve never had an affair with anybody, ever, while I’ve been married with Nia,” he said. “The account was opened out of pure fleshly desires and out of simple curiosity."
Nia, who sat behind Sam in the video and nodded supportively at points during his confession, also noted in the video that she’s standing by her husband. “And I just want to add, too, that I have forgiven Sam,” she said. “This is in our past and it’s unfortunate that it’s being dug up right now. But our marriage is worth fighting for, and it always will be."
The couple, who have been vlogging for eight years, recently found fame when a video Sam shared on Aug. 5 went viral. In that particular video, which has since received more than 14 million views, Sam broke the news to an unsuspecting Nia that she was pregnant again. One week later, they sadly revealed to followers that they had miscarried.
The Raders aren’t the only newsmakers to have been impacted by the release of the stolen Ashley Madison data, of course. Josh Duggar, the disgraced former star of TLC’s hit 19 Kids and Counting, admitted and apologized for cheating on his wife, Anna, on Thursday after Gawker found an email address tied to his name with a billing address listed as his grandmother’s house.
