Like millions of people around the world, Sam and Nia Rader’s lives were upended after Ashley Madison’s user data was released to the public — but up until that point, they appeared to live a picture-perfect life as a Christian couple. In Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal, Sam and Nia go before the camera to reveal what happened before, during, and after the popular website for arranging extramarital affairs was hacked. Today, Sam and Nia are still together following the Ashley Madison scandal — and still reflecting on everything that happened. 

“It’s still shocking to me that things like this exist,” Nia tells Tudum.

Before the hack, Sam and Nia regularly filmed the minutiae of their family’s daily lives — grocery trips, car rides — and packaged them into vlogs for their popular YouTube channel. Over the years, the Rader family’s antics caught broader attention more than once. In 2014, at the height of the worldwide popularity of Frozen, Sam and Nia lip-synced along to one of the songs on the soundtrack and stumbled into viral fame. The following year, Sam tested Nia’s urine by surreptitiously scooping a sample from the toilet and surprised her with the news of her own pregnancy.

As their channel raked in new subscribers, however, Sam was about to be surprised by one of his own secrets. Before the family had begun vlogging, Sam had signed up for an account on Ashley Madison, and the company was desperately fending off a hacker group threatening to share their user data with the world. Once the hackers made good on the threat, Sam told Nia what he had done. “It was very shocking,” Nia says. “I was surprised that Sam would have been drawn to a website like that in the first place, because it was outside of his usual morals and character.”

As the news made the rounds, some of the Raders’ friends and family learned of what had happened before they had the chance to share the news. “My best friend saw us on the news, and she was in total shock,” Nia recalls. Even so, their loved ones served as a source of much-needed encouragement during a trying time. “Our family were all very supportive and understanding that as humans — broken humans — we make mistakes,” she says. Sam’s confidantes also stepped up to provide support and guidance. “The people in my life I’m accountable to — my brothers, and my pastor — they were trying to ask me if there’s anything more to the story,” Sam tells Tudum. “At the time I told them no.”

While the news was upsetting, it wasn’t the entirety of Sam’s transgressions — and the data breach kick-started a chain of events that resulted in him coming clean to Nia. “I’m not angry at Ashley Madison, definitely not angry at the hackers,” Sam tells Tudum of the ways in which the breach changed his life. “I was already on a horrible path when Ashley Madison was advertised to me. Of course, it’s frustrating that they didn’t keep my data safe, but I just see it as the Lord exposing me and bringing [me] out of the darkness.”

Although Sam and Nia have since reconciled, many couples would shy away from participating in a documentary that forces them to recount some of the toughest parts of their personal history. The Raders, however, hope that their story can be a balm for others who are struggling. 

“Social media can show you exactly what you want to see. It can show you everything you’re not, everything you wish you were,” Nia says. “Somebody’s got to step up and say, ‘Life is messy and ugly, and we’ve made mistakes and we’ve done things, but there’s still hope out there.’ ”

In the spirit of being open about the messy realities of life, the Raders are working on a book that expands on their lives beyond the Ashley Madison hack. “It’s a complicated, very sensitive, personal, vulnerable story,” Sam tells Tudum. Titled Sam and Nia Live in Truth: Public Scandals, Secret Vows, Restored Hearts, the self-published book provides an unvarnished look at how they repaired their relationship once the cameras were off. “I believe that marriages can be healed,” Nia says. “It’s worth fighting to fix your marriage.”

Watch Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal on Netflix now.