The Winnipeg Sun: Sunday July 25th, 2004
Story By: Chris Kitching

From sublime to ridiculous

How cyber flings go under covers

It begins in cyberspace but for plenty of AshleyMadison.com users it doesn't always stay there. Give it some time and many of these online flings between two cheating hearts will leap to the bedroom from a private chat room.

And, in some cases, these hush-hush hookups can be downright strange or hard to believe.

A woman who suspected her husband of having an affair used the Ashley Madison Agency to try to catch him red-handed, but the real cheating began when she opened an account and started chatting with other users, said Darren Morgenstern, the website's operations director.

"While she was on there she met a man that she eventually started to like and she ended up having an affair," he said. "She still hasn't caught her husband and doesn't know if he was even on our site."

While most straying spouses who meet through the agency are complete strangers, old lovers and friends have used AshleyMadison.com to find each other again and, for some, reunite between the sheets.

"Two people who knew each other about 10 years ago ... met on the site and attested to each other that they should have been together," Morgenstern said, adding both were miserable in their respective relationships.

CHANCES SLIM TO NONE

"They both left their spouses and are now engaged to be married," he said. "I'd say the chances (of this) are slim to none but it happened."

To pay homage to the website they used to sneak around behind their partners' backs, the lovers have promised to name their first-born child "Ashley," Morgenstern said.

©  Copyright CANOE, a division of Netgraphe Inc. 2004