A former Ashley Madison publicist claimed she was asked to create “fake profiles” to attract men looking for lovers.
Sarah Symonds, from Newport, South Wales, spoke about her time working for the company following Netflix’s explosive docuseries Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies, And Scandal about the controversial cheating website.
Sarah, 54, who allegedly had an affair with chef Gordon Ramsay from 2001 to 2008, claimed she herself was asked to date men when she started working for the controversial cheating website.
In 2007, the author was approached by CEO Noel Biderman to join the company after seeing her on American talk shows promoting her book Have An Affair?: A Handbook for the Other Woman.
speaking to Sun, said: ‘I was surprised that Noel wanted me to go on dates under fake names with married men. She was confused because I was supposed to be the spokesperson for the company, not in this shady area.
Sarah Symonds, from Newport, South Wales, a former Ashley Madison publicist, claimed she was asked to create “fake profiles” to attract men looking for lovers.
‘He wanted me to create fake profiles, although I refused. The whole thing seemed sordid and in bad taste to me.
He joined the company that was growing rapidly in the US and UK at the time and eventually grew to 37 million users in 40 countries.
At the time she thought the company was “stylish and edgy”, however when she arrived in Toronto to start work she claimed it was “disappointing” and said it was very male-oriented.
In 2008 the company began to expand and Sarah was able to return to the UK, where there were 700,000 British men and only 31 UK women.
While in the UK, Sarah met disgraced publicist Max Clifford, who was jailed for eight years in 2014 for sexual offenses and died in 2017.
The author claimed she was “persuaded to be intimate” with Clifford in a bathroom while visiting his London office.
Sarah was fired from Ashley Madison after her seven-year affair with Gordon Ramsay came to light in 2008.
Sarah, who now cares for her elderly parents in Newport, said Netflix’s three-part documentary series about the site has “opened up old wounds”.
In 2007, the author was approached by CEO Noel Biderman to join the company after seeing her on American talk shows promoting her book Have An Affair?: A Handbook for the Other Woman.
In 2015, someone hacked the controversial dating site and shared every member’s name online in a shocking leak, a group calling themselves The Impact Team took matters into their own hands and claimed responsibility for hacking the site. quotes.
The website, which launched in 2001, promoted itself as an anonymous venue for spouses looking to cheat and offered the opportunity to connect those who wanted to cheat on their respective partners.
But when Team Impact arrived, they demanded the site be shut down, and when it wasn’t, the hackers posted the site’s 37 million data records on the web for anyone to see.
After a trove of data purportedly belonging to users was shared on the dark web, both police and Ashley Madison executives scrambled to find the tech wizards behind the Impact Team.
The data dump exposed everyone from the neighbor to TLC’s Josh Duggar, who tainted his family’s empire after it was revealed he was arrested for possessing and receiving child pornography.
Due to the leak, marriages were destroyed and the world as many knew it was ruined, with some of the adulterers even ending their lives after their misdemeanors became apparent.
Sarah, 54, claimed she had an affair with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay from 2001 to 2008.
The Florida state attorney was forced to resign and a New Orleans pastor committed suicide.
Netflix recently unearthed the scandal when it announced it would launch a docuseries about those caught up in Ashley Madison’s motto: “Life is short, have an affair.”
In 2012, Sarah created Wife School, an online counseling forum, following the success of her Canadian show The Mistress, which followed her on her mission to rescue women trapped in the despair of an extramarital relationship.
Sarah then appeared on the hit American show Dr. Phil and brought five lovers on the show to talk about their livelihood; The show proved to get the best ratings of the entire series.
After her success across the pond, she returned to Wales and set up the non-profit Wife School (“you can’t ask desperate women for money”), after hearing from so many wives asking her for advice.
She now receives a constant stream of emails from desperate wives who fear their husband is cheating on her and are desperately seeking advice on how to prevent this from happening.
Speaking to the Mail Online in 2013, she said: ‘Wife school found me. I was working on my show The Mistress in Canada, which highlighted the issue and many wives contacted me for advice.
‘The school is aimed at making today’s marriages more successful and ultimately reducing divorce rates and the subsequent demise of the fabric of our society.
‘Any marriage or committed relationship needs daily maintenance and care; People just don’t seem to realize it.
“Marriage should be compared to a high-level job; once you get that job, you know you have to show up every day, put a lot of effort into your role to keep it and thrive in it; otherwise, there is always the risk that you will Someone come and take it away.
“Therefore, if more people treated their marriage like they do their job, more marriages would last as long as they are supposed to last.”