The popular Christian vlogger Sam Rader—best known for “surprising” his wife with her own positive pregnancy test in a viral video—has admitted to using an account on the cheating website Ashley Madison. In a YouTube video with his wife Nia by his side, Sam claims that God has forgiven him for seeking extramarital sexual partners online.

Sam explains:

Hey guys. As you may have seen, my name has been associated with an Ashley Madison account, a website made for spouses who want to have an affair. I’m here to clarify some of this with you guys, ‘cause I owe it to you.

I did make the account. I made the account two years ago. This is an issue that is in our past. This is before I got onto YouTube. I brought this to my church at the time, when I first started at the church that I’m at now; this has been brought to my discipleship partner. This was brought to my wife’s attention. She has forgiven me for this mistake that I made and opening the account. I’ve sought forgiveness to God, and he’s forgiven me. So, I’ve been completely cleansed of this sin, and also, I need to be clear that I’ve never met with a single person face to face through that website, and that I never had an affair with anybody, ever, while I’ve been married with Nia. The account was opened out of pure fleshly desires and just sinful curiosity.

Some of you are questioning my faith and, um, me being a Christian and doing this. I guess what some people don’t understand is that we’re all broken—even Christians. We come to God as broken people, and he sat upon the cross to save us from those sins. And because this is in our past, and this has already been completely resolved within my family and within my church, we won’t be saying any more on this matter. I wont be talking to any media outlets. The only place you’ll hear of this out—of our mouth—is here on this video. The only time. You know, this is why we need a savior. We’re sinful by nature, and we do stupid things like this. And this is what the atonements all about: Forgiveness and second chances.

Nia then adds:

And I just want to add too, guys, you know, I have forgiven Sam and I stand behind him, and this is in our past. And it’s unfortunate that its being dug up right now, but you know, our marriage is worth fighting for. And it always will be. And I just want to encourage you guys who are dealing with any kind of situation like this within your marriage to just fight for what you have. Marriage is the real deal, and it’s been sealed, and it’s worth fighting for. It always will be.

Sam concludes, “Alright guys, thank you so much for your support—the ones standing by us—and for believing in us. And we’ll see you guys tomorrow. God bless.”

To be clear, Sam Rader opened the YouTube account his family now uses in 2007. He began paying for an Ashley Madison account in September of 2013. He posted his first video to go viral in 2o14.


Contact the author at allie@gawker.com.