RHONY Stars Kristen And John Taekman's Dating Site Scandal, Explained

When Josh Taekman was outed as an Ashley Madison user, he told the Daily Mail in August 2015 that he was a victim of scammers. "I don't understand. There's not a shot in hell that I'm a subscriber. I have no knowledge of that this is the first I've ever heard of it," he said, adding, "This is crazy. I saw it on the TV the other day about the security breach, and we were laughing about it. It is what it is, but somebody is definitely fraudulently using my name and number."

This explanation may have worked if hackers had not revealed his personal information and the extent of his usage of the platform. In the report by the Daily Mail, Taekman reportedly made 62 payments to the site totaling thousands over the three years of his membership, which began in 2011. There is no fee to sign up for Ashley Madison but members can purchase credits, which are used to send messages. Users may buy 100 credits for $49, while 1,000 credits are $250. Even more incriminating was that the billing address associated with the credit card information used by Josh corresponded to the Tribeca residence he shares with Kristen Taekman. Records showed that Josh remained active on the site until around June 2014, which would have been months after they began appearing on "RHONYC" in March 2014. With the evidence against him, Josh came clean but maintained his time on the site was innocent.