Ashley Madison: Are Sam and Nia Rader still together?

Netflix’s Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal introduces a number of couples who were impacted by the hack. This includes Sam and Nia Rader — but who are they and are they still together?

The true story behind Netflix’s Ashley Madison docu-series is like something out of a movie. With a motto like, “Life is Short. Have an affair,” the dating site for married people looking to cheat on their spouses has been contentious since its inception. 

But in 2015, the debate took a turn. Ashley Madison became the target of a massive data breach by anonymous hackers known as The Impact Team, resulting in millions of users’ personal information being leaked on the dark web. 

As spectators watched on, many with a dose of schadenfreude, the scandal had real-life consequences for users, even resulting in at least two suicides. For Sam and Nia Rader, the situation was like a living nightmare, with the pair appearing in the Netflix true crime doc to share their story. 

Who are Sam and Nia Rader? 

Sam and Nia Rader are YouTubers who rose to viral fame in 2014. They shared a video of them lip-syncing to Frozen’s ‘Love Is An Open Door’, which they titled, ‘Good Looking Parents Sing Disney’s Frozen (Love Is an Open Door)’. 

The video has 23 million views at the time of writing, and its success encouraged the couple to pursue a vlogging career, with a focus on family life.

In 2015, they had more viral success. Their video, titled ‘HUSBAND SHOCKS WIFE WITH PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT!’ showed Sam secretly conducting a pregnancy test from the toilet bowl after Nia forgot to flush. 

The video has 19 million views at the time of writing, and though they’re not the highest-earning YouTubers, their channel has a sizeable 2.51 million subscribers. 

Sam and Nia have four children together: Symphony, Abram, Juliet, and Josie. In much of their content, they discuss their religious beliefs and following the Christian principles to family life.

What happened to Sam and Nia Rader? 

As revealed in the docuseries, Sam Rader was caught cheating on his wife Nia after he was exposed in the 2015 hacking scandal.

Sam and Nia married young and soon started a family. Though happy in their relationship, Sam described feeling a “sudden inundation of responsibilities” as a husband, father, and in his career as an ER nurse.  

When an ad for Ashley Madison came up, he was intrigued. He made an account and started chatting with a few women. But, when their YouTube career started taking off, he said, “The infidelity desires kind of just stopped and during that period of time I deleted Ashley Madison.”

Everything was going well until summer 2015, when The Impact Team dropped their first Ashley Madison data leak, with information such as emails, names, and credit card transactions made by users. 

Sam was hoping his name wouldn’t be noticed. “It would have just completely decimated my reputation, especially as a Christian,” he said. 

On the way to a vlogger fair, he was scrolling through X/Twitter and found a post from someone who’d spotted his name in the leak. “I felt a sudden sense of doom and that my life was over,” Sam added.

He decided to deal with it there and then. He took Nia to a restaurant at the airport and explained to her that he’d signed up to Ashley Madison but hadn’t cheated, claiming it was all just a big mistake. 

Nia said she “still felt betrayed,” but she decided to forgive him and address it head on through YouTube. In a video, Sam apologized for his behavior and claimed, “I never had an affair with anybody, ever, while I’ve been married to Nia.”

The whole situation blew over… for a few days. Their peace came crashing down once more when The Impact Team struck again, releasing an even larger cache of files. When Sam and Nia returned from the vlogger fair, they noticed their family group chat was blowing up. 

Although Nia didn’t look, she read a text saying, “Sam, you have to be fully honest.” It turns out, he’d minimized what had really happened, and his secrets went a lot deeper than Ashley Madison. 

Now he was backed into a corner, he decided to tell Nia everything. “Massage parlors, strip clubs, those were easy access to that pleasure that I wanted more of. And I thought having that extra sex outside of marriage would be exciting,” Sam admitted.

He had also been flirting or having emotional relationships with acquaintances of theirs, and had come onto a couple of friends who didn’t reciprocate. 

Nia added, “He had pursued somebody who was special to me and she just kind of cut herself out of my life. I lost this very close friend because of you. It was a lot to face in a moment.”

Are Sam and Nia Rader still together?

Despite the deep betrayal, in the final episode of Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal, it’s revealed Sam and Nia Rader are still together and married. 

As Nia came to terms with what had happened, she eventually agreed to go to marriage counseling with Sam and their pastor. “No matter how mad I was at what he had done, I could still see this shift that happened in him,” she explained.

The Netflix series initially interviews the pair separately but they come together at the end, with Sam stating, “Nia decided to give me a second chance.” 

Although he has a lot of regrets, he doesn’t regret the Ashley Madison hack. “It had to happen for where we’re at today,” he said.

The pair continue to vlog to this day. Their latest YouTube video showing them taking part in press interview for the streaming service.

It’s safe to say viewers have a lot of opinions on their relationship, with many filling the comments section of their new vlog after watching the Netflix doc.

“When a person has the opportunity to confess many times, then only confesses when they get caught, are they really that repentant?” one asked. Another said, “So if she did all the stuff he did, would he stay with her?” A third added, “Run Nia. This guy gives off the most selfish and narcissistic vibes.”

Others, however, offered their support, including this person who said, “Nia… you are such a beautiful person! Your children are wonderful because of you!”

Another wrote, “It must have taken a lot of work, and I’m really glad you got through it.”

Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal is streaming on Netflix now. For more true crime, check out details on the new Cesar Roman doc, how to watch the Alison Botha doc, or dive into the Fiona Muir articles related to Baby Reindeer. You can also find new TV shows to add to your watchlist in May.