The founder of ashleymadison.com boasted that spouses would never learn of their partner’s infidelity. Noel Biderman said that more than 18,000 Australians — 30 per cent of them women — had registered before the site had even been advertised in Australia.
“Cheaters still love their partners, but they’re terrified to tell them they need something else in the bedroom,” he said. “Cheating is sometimes easier than saying they want to bring another person into the bedroom, or have a night off to be with someone else.”
Family groups have described the website as “scurrilous” and “low”.
“It’s a means to make money, so he’s effectively getting rich by undermining people’s marriages,” Bill Muehlenberg, secretary of the Family Council of Victoria, said.
Biderman defended his site, arguing that infidelity could save relationships. “We are always viewed as a home-wrecking service but we’re actually preserving many marriages,” he said. “Having sex with a like-minded person is better than starting a relationship with a friend or someone in the workplace, or going on to singles sites or bars to meet people. No one has to get hurt this way,” he explained.
The American entrepreneur and happily married father of two says he’s made millions through his website.
Biderman developed the website, with his wife’s reluctant approval, some years ago after discovering the 20 per cent of people using online dating services and singles sites were actually married.
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