♪ this is "nightline." >> byron: tonight, the business of adultery. the dating website popular with married people -- >> nobody's going to have an affair because they saw a 30-second tv commercial.

they have affairs because their life isn't borg for them. >> byron: consequences for spouses soaring. >> i get this phone call, it was this woman. she tells me she's been having an affair with my husband the last 18 months. >> byron: how a massive internet hack exposed millions of cheaters to the world. >> it was a moral play. shut down your business or, in essence, i'm going to shut it down for you. plus "the little mermaid." the star of one of the summer's biggest movies, halle bailey, making a big splash as the modern princess finding her voice. >> you just get to see more into her mind and her brain and her heart. >> byron: the racist backlash from the casting. >> i'm from the south, nothing breaks my skin in that way. >> byron: inspiring a new generation of fans. who see themselves in her. >> you guys look amazing. >> byron: and spears slapped? the startling altercation

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providing a platform for married people looking to cheat. combine that with some sex, some shame, and some cyber hacking. the scandal revealed that a new documentary from abc studios. ♪ >> we have the kids, we had a dog, we had a house. you know, we had it all. there would be these phone calls. there would be no one on the other end. i had a facebook friend request from someone i don't know. it was, like, all these weird things that were happening that just didn't make sense. what is going on? my husband left to go to the grocery store. and while he was gone, i get this phone call. and it was this woman asking to speak to stephanie. and i said, this is her. and she just tells me she's been

having an affair with my husband for the last 18 months. he had told her, "i'm going to work things out with my wife." she said, "hell no you're not." so that's why she called. i was shaking. i was just -- my mouth had gone dry. and when i asked her how they met, she wouldn't tell me. then for some reason, i just blurted out, "was it ashley madison?" and she said, "yeah." >> ashley madison works from a business model standpoint. because their goal is not to get you to leave your marriage. their goal is for you to have an affair, go back to your marriage, come have another affair. >> our business model has stayed the same since we launched. it's a credit-based system where

pen c men come on, purchase credits to send messages to women. >> this was a business in the business of affairs, in the business of adultery. people were so shocked and surprised it existed or had been conceived that there was a lot of backlash and a lot of the pushback from the media. >> controversial dating website ashley madison -- >> long before i launched ashley madison, there were affairs. after i'm gone, there will be affairs. i'm telling people, have the perfect affair. >> what ashley madison were able to do successfully is become part of the cultural zeitgeist. >> ashleymadison.com. it's not cheating if you don't know the person well. >> they became the bad boys of love. >> nobody's going to have an affair because they saw a 30-second tv commercial. they have affairs because their life isn't working for them.

>> why advertise, then? >> because i'm in the business of making money. >> in 2009, ashley madison claimed to have 2.7 million users. they were active in three territories -- canada, the u.s., and ireland. then they wanted to do what every tech company wants to do, which is scale. >> so they decide to look at asia for expansion of their brand. and they go to japan, and within eight months, they have 1 million subscribers. and now the thought is, bingo. >> we walked into the office at 9:00 in the morning. haven't had coffee yet. a call, it was business as usual. >> some of our teams open are their laptops and there was a message.

>> it was then kind of a full panic mode at that point. for the majority of the executives, at the very least. and there was a lot of worry at that point.

>> there wasn't a panic. there wasn't a sense of chaos or confusion. it was very orderly. very serious. somebody wanted us to shut our business down. there was no ransom. so it was a moral play. shut down your business, or, in essence, i'm going to shut it down for you. >> it became very quickly a sense of not knowing what was up, what was down, were our futures secure, what was going to happen? >> impact was essentially blackmailing avid life media, saying if they didn't take down ashley madison, they were going to release all of this data on all of their users. basically the most embarrassing possible thing that could happen for a company that marketed itself as being discreet. >> there was no way we were shutting down. that wasn't going to happen.

>> there was a month between when they announced the hack and when they threatened to release the data. clock's ticking. >> these hackers are threatening to make public some embarrassing, very personal details. >> customers' sexual fantasies. >> this is not a site to share recipes. >> the american blogger who broke the story says the hackers targeted ashley madison because the company lied to its customers. >> ashley madison had a feature called "full bleat." you would pay a $19.99 fee, and the site would totally pull every trace of you ever having used the site from the servers. >> they were making $1.7 million a year on something like that, from just selling something that nowadays would just be an ordinary feature. >> people who had paid for the

pay delete feature still had many personally identifying details kept in those databases on the servers. >> ashley madison yesterday suspended fees for users who want to delete their accounts after hackers threatened to expose millions of users. >> we recognized immediately that we had let down our members. even if it was just a threat to release the data that they said they had. and we did everything within our power to minimize it, but there is a notion once the pee is in the pool, you can't get it out. our issues in relation to the events of 2015 are still ongoing, an open case. we have no information. there are no suspects. there are no known suspects. >> you have different sorts of hackers.

you have the ones who are financially motivated, they clearly want to get a ransom. then you have hactivists, combination of activist and hacker. >> if you believe the hackers, they claim to have been inside their networks for months or years. and it's fair to say that the tension and the anxiety i think for a lot of users was really ramping up, the closer to that date we got. >> you have a website catering to cheaters that promised to safeguard everybody's information. turns out they break that vow. now the adulterers are all upset. >> exactly. >> turns out that karma is about as much of a bitch as your soon-to-be ex-wife. >> it's not often a company, irrespective of what they do, gets hacked that completely and everybody's kind of like, yes! >> you can watch the fallout from the ashley madison affair

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♪ >> byron: even though halle bailey is just the latest in a long line of actresses to breathe life into a disney princess, she's breaking new ground as "the little mermaid's" ariel, winning raves while inspiring a new generation of fans with the power of representation. here's abc's linsey davis.

>> the first timesaw "the little mermaid," we had the vhs. put it in, watch it on repeat. >> reporter: actress and singer halle bailey was captivated by the coming-of-age fairytale of the little mermaid who dreams of a world beyond her own. ♪ >> it was a big part of the reason why i wanted to swim was because i had seen "the little mermaid." being in the water, i would pretend i was one. >> sebastian, if you had seen it up there -- >> reporter: she's pretending no more. now 23 years old, she is disney's newest princess, ariel in the live action film "the little mermaid." for bailey, it's a dream fulfilled after nailing the film's iconic ballad "part of your world" during her audition. ♪ wandering free wish i could be part of that world ♪ >> i remember, i think it was

the ending notes, and i close my eyes, then i open them. everyone was crying. i immediately thought, oh, no. i just did something terrible, they hated it. and then i quickly realized they were happy. ♪ you dream about going up there but that is a big mistake ♪ ♪ just look at the world around you right here on the ocean floor ♪ >> reporter: in 1989, disney's smash hit "the little mermaid" ushered in a golden era for animated storytelling, instantly becoming a classic. ♪ under the sea ♪ >> can you channel your inner 5-year-old and imagine what it would have been like at that time to see a little mermaid who looked like you? >> almost healing to an inner child to see someone who looks like you in such a big role that you were so used to seeing a different image of. and seeing one that looks like you with your skin. and i think it's so essential for the development, especially

of our youth. >> it was important to you, my understanding, that you have your real hair? >> yes. >> why was that so important? >> you know, just as a black woman, being in the black community, our hair is so important to us. it's spiritual, it's everything. and, you know, it meant everything to me when i was able to keep my locks with the image of ariel, because that's part of the essence of who i am. you know. just make it red because ariel's hair is red. >> was there pressure on you, do you think, being a black ariel? >> you know, i think that with any role and adaptation that people have known and loved for so long, there's definitely going to be eyes on you and pressure of some sort. because people are invested in this film, and it's their childhood. >> reporter: but some were not ready for a black actress taking on the role. when bailey's casting was first announced, racist comments flooded twitter, #notmyariel in protest. were you expecting that? any aspect of you that was

prepared for that? >> just being a black woman in general, you expect people to be a certain way. i'm from the south, so nothing kind of breaks my skin in that way. but i just focus on the positive. the happiness, the babies, the reactions. all of that lifts me up. >> reporter: this may be her biggest role yet, but bailey is no newcomer. ♪ she made her singing debut as a child as one half of the grammy-nominated duo chloe x halle. "nightline's" byron pitts sat down with them in 2016. after becoming internet sensations and getting noticed by beyonce. >> byron: you all became, fair to say, youtube sensations, right? how did it come about? >> we just started doing youtube covers. we were like, we're kind of bored, let's do this, sing this song that we like. ♪ >> reporter: it wasn't long before beyonce herself signed the siblings to a record label

and they opened for her "formation" world tour in europe. >> she's a great role model in every aspect of life. >> reporter: the live action movie, which is distributed by disney, the parent company of abc, takes a deeper dive into ariel's love story while still capturing the original film's universal themes of family, friendship, and falling in love. ♪ kiss the girl sha la >> in the original you knew ariel is passionate and knows what she wants for herself. i think that in our version you just get to see more into her mind and her brain and her heart and what she feels and her passions and her curiosity. >> reporter: bailey's here at disneyland getting ready to surprise a group of lucky kids. >> i'm here for the children that are getting makeovers here at the bibty bopty they're being turned into versions of my version of ariel.

>> reporter: these little ones are just some of the children who went viral when the first trailer revealed bailey, someone who looks like them, portraying their favorite mermaid. >> she's like me! >> a black woman! >> wow! >> you guys look amazing. >> i love your outfit! >> hi! >> reporter: for many of this generation, she is the only ariel they will know. bailey is the second black woman to become a live action disney princess. the first is someone she's noted as an inspiration. brandi, who starred in the 1997 remake of rodgers and hammerstein's "cinderella." >> how do you do, your highness? >> what would you hope young black and brown girls and boys take away from being able to see you on the big screen?

>> i hope that young black and brown boys and girls just take away that they are important. they are worthy. they deserve to be a princess, a prince. anything they want to be, they should be able to. and i hope that they take away from the themes of the film that you can go after what you want and follow your dreams. don't ever stop, not for anybody. >> byron: our thanks to linsey. up next, britney spears slapped? the shocking incident. i learned i can stay undetectable with fewer medicines. that's why i switched to dovato. dovato is a complete hiv treatment for some adults. no other complete hiv pill uses fewer medicines to help keep you undetectable than dovato. detect this: most hiv pills contain 3 or 4 medicines. dovato is as effective with just 2. if you have hepatitis b, don't stop dovato without talking to your doctor. don't take dovato if you're allergic to its ingredients or taking dofetilide. this can cause serious or

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♪ >> byron: finally tonight, britney spears, just like any other fan, tries to get the

attention of the nba's hottest new star. san antonio spurs victor wembanyama was heading to dinner with the security team in vegas. britney spears tapped him to say hello. in this video obtained by tmz, the surprise reaction. his security guard slapping her hand away. britney initially filed a police report alleging battery. after an investigation, las vegas pd saying the superstar inadvertently hit herself with her own hand, declining to press charges. the superstar posted on instagram, while she was frustrated by the incident, she's still a big fan we wimbanyama wembanyamas. have a good and safe weekend. thanks for the company, america.