It's been a month since news first broke that cheating site Ashley Madison was hacked. During that time Noel Biderman, CEO of the site's parent company Avid Life Media, has remained confident in his company's strength and endurance.
After Biderman refused to bend to the hackers' demand to take Ashley Madison and another site offline, the perpetrators began to leak data stolen from the company's networks. At first, the data was only about Ashley Madison's spouse-cheating customers, but last week, private emails from Biderman's corporate account hit the web. Today, following stories that Biderman may have engaged in a number of extramarital affairs, as revealed in those emails—ALM announced that Biderman is stepping down as head of the company.
"Effective today, Noel Biderman, in mutual agreement with the company, is stepping down as Chief Executive Officer of Avid Life Media Inc, (ALM) and is no longer with the company," the company said in a statement. "This change is in the best interest of the company and allows us to continue to provide support to our members and dedicated employees. We are steadfast in our commitment to our customer base."
The statement didn't indicate the sudden reason for Biderman's departure, but it comes days after revelations of Biderman's alleged infidelities.
Biderman founded the site, whose motto is "Life is short. Have an affair," in 2001 and often referred to himself as the King of Infidelity. But despite encouraging other people to have affairs, Biderman, a married father with two young children, had long insisted that he had never cheated on his wife, nor did he want to.
“If I wanted to have an affair I would have one," he told the New York Daily News last year.
But it turns out that Biderman may have been lying. At the time of that interview, the leaked emails suggest he may have already been engaging in a three-year sexual relationship with a Toronto escort who may have been paid for her favors.
Biderman apparently met the woman in 2012 at a spa. She emailed him in July 2012 identifying herself as "Melisa from the spa" and suggested they meet for coffee. Emails between them over the next two years depict a number of assignations at hotels.
The emails show it was the escort, who appears to have been a student at the time, finally broke off their arrangement in September 2014 after she became concerned that her boyfriend might find out.
"He's very intuitive and almost found out last time," the woman wrote Biderman in a September 2014 email leaked by the hackers. "I'm sorry. I don't want to lose him. As much as I need the money. I talked to him this morning and my sense of guilt made me imagine that he knows."
Biderman appears to have offered her a job with the company, writing her in October that "I will also have a good 'signing bonus' for you :).” The woman later declined the job, however.
The leaked emails also show Biderman discussing meetings with other women, including one identified as Mila who gave Biderman a phone number that matched a profile on TheEroticReview.com web site for an escort named Mila.
WIRED was unable to determine if the specific emails suggesting infidelity are legitimate, but they were released with other files that have been verified.
It's not clear why Biderman would engage so boldly in revealing conversations through his work email account—instead of using a private account. Any system administrator working for the company would have been able to access his emails and view the conversations.
