Rise and fall of Ashley Madison boss Noel Biderman, who sparked fury with ‘dirty’ ads… before his OWN affairs leaked

HE was the independent CEO who claimed that the Ashley Madison dating site for affairs was SAVING marriages, not breaking them.

The charismatic Noel Biderman turned the controversial website into a multi-million dollar empire with the tempting slogan “Life is short. Have an affair.”

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He visited TV stations and chat shows around the world – often accompanied by his loyal wife Amanda – claiming that although his company helped people be adulterous, he would not cheat on his wife because his work meant he knew How to make monogamy work. .

But it was all a lie. When a massive data breach in 2016 exposed millions of Ashley Madison customers as cheaters, Noel Biderman was also discovered.

The King of Infidelity had a series of affairs with numerous women over the years – and was also a regular user of escort agencies, despite boasting about being happily married.

He stepped down as CEO, while his loyal childhood friend and vice president of sales at Ashley Madison, Evan Back, said he was “completely disgraced” and “hit rock bottom.”

But after controversy surrounding the company resurfaced following Netflix’s hit documentary Ashley Madison: Sex Lies and Scandal, it appears that Noel Biderman has recovered – both personally and professionally.

His wife Amanda, mother of his two children, has seemingly supported him throughout the debacle, and his spokesperson told Netflix that he remains a “committed husband and father.”

In 2023, his lawyer said: “Mr. Biderman was also the victim of a crime, like the Ashley Madison customers whose public information was hacked and released.

“While Mr. Biderman understands the differences between himself and these clients, he – like many of them – has, in the intervening years, tried to move on and repair the damage to his life and relationships.

“He feels fortunate that his wife, Amanda, has supported him throughout.”

And in terms of work, he’s now CEO of Avenue Insights, a Toronto-based software company that helps small and medium-sized organizations improve their data collection — ironic, given that his Ashley Madison downfall was due to a data leak.

Shock statements

Wife Amanda must clearly be a very forgiving woman. Yesterday, former Ashley Madison advisor Sarah Symonds told The Sun that Biderman had asked her to create fake profiles on the site and even date married men.

But that claim is just the tip of the iceberg compared to some of the shocking statements made by Noel himself during his years at Ashley Madison.

In 2011, the company used a plus-size model in one of its ads with the headline: “Did your wife scare you last night?”, suggesting that if a woman was overweight, it would be a good reason to cheat on her.

The model protested the “harmful” advert, saying: “I am mortified that my image and likeness would be used as advertising for two things I am so vehemently against: namely cheating and, to an even greater extent, body shaming.

“This is a dirty message to send to women and doing so repeatedly shows a huge lack of respect and a general feeling of disdain towards women, especially those who don’t fit this company’s ideal body image.”

Biderman responded by saying, “It was a statement about finding out you’re in a relationship with someone unrecognizable,” he said.

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“I don’t think it’s a jab at fat people,” he added. “I always try to advertise in real-life situations.

“For many people, a [spouse] You are less attractive because you don’t pay attention to your body type. I may still love my partner, but he is not sexually interesting.”

‘Misunderstood Cheaters’

When it came to promoting Ashley Madison, no statement was too strange or controversial for publicity-hungry Biderman.

In 2009, he told Canada AM that cheating made people better partners, saying, “I think people who have affairs are completely misunderstood, and most of the time, they’re people who are hurting.

“They are really alone within their own marriage and when you are alone, there is a biological factor that will make you act to change that.

“So they tend to have affairs, they tend to have flirtations, and often that makes them better partners, better parents, better bosses, better employees. It’s hard for people to accept that, but it’s the truth.”

For many people, a [spouse] You are less attractive because you don’t pay attention to your body type. I may still love my partner, but he is not sexually interesting

Noel Biderman

Ashley Madison sold itself at its discretion. Their website was a surefire way for people to have fun without anyone finding out – until I found out it wasn’t.

Biderman also claimed to have removed the damage caused by cheating, saying on a visit to the UK: “I actually felt and still feel today that the UK is better off now that Ashley Madison exists.

“That single woman on Match.com is much less likely to bump into a married man now that I exist, the workplace has fewer and fewer office romances, these are all net gains for people in society. What I did let’s say, the collateral damage has been removed.

“Before the Internet existed, women had affairs in the workplace or in their inner circle: their best friend’s husband, their sister’s husband, so that had potential secondary harm… your husband finds out, your marriage falls apart and , oh, by the way your sister will never speak to you again.”

Ashley Madison Hacking Scandal Explained

Netflix’s smash hit ‘Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal’ tells how hackers told the company to take down its website or its user base would be leaked to the public.

When they didn’t back down, celebrities, politicians and other high-profile figures were exposed as having accounts – triggering devastating consequences for thousands of relationships and leaving some members suicidal.

In 2015, in the eye of the hacking storm, The Sun reported claims from analysts that the site was not what it seemed.

Figures show that 31 million men registered on the online dating service were men and just 5.5 million were women.

The Sun also revealed that 700,000 British men looking for a fling on the Ashley Madison website pursued just 31 UK-based women.

But despite claiming to be a one-woman guy, Noel was the first to admit he didn’t believe humans were built to be monogamous — and that’s when Ashley Madison stepped in to help.

He said: “There is no biologist who says we are designed for monogamy. After six months of being in a relationship, sexual attraction begins to wane. After 22 years, it is practically non-existent.

“But we don’t have the courage to say, ‘I think monogamy is really holding us back, we could have a much better marriage if we allowed each other to have sex with other people.’ behind our partner’s back.”

And he compared falling in love with two people to a parent’s love for their two children – society thinks one is acceptable, but the other is not.

“I have two sons – no one would dare challenge me that I can love them equally – but if I told someone I have two wives and I can love them equally, they would question that ability,” he said.

“For romantic love, we don’t believe we have the capacity to love more than one.”

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There’s no doubt that Biderman had a great sales pitch – which certainly won over his wife Amanda in the early days of their relationship.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in 2015, she said he was not an experienced dater or a smooth operator, saying: “Noel is simply a businessman who identified an opportunity to understand the psychology around relationships and dig deeper. [to] find out the things people don’t want to discuss.”

And she said they were great communicators and she would be heartbroken if she found out he had been unfaithful.

“We have such a good relationship and are open about our needs, that this would really be a big surprise,” she said.

Considering that Noel said that if there ever was an affair they would both share the blame,

“The failure of our effort at monogamy would be between the two of us,” he said.

“We obviously [wouldn’t have given] each other what we needed. That is where all the responsibility would lie.”