When the private information of users of cheating website Ashley Madison was leaked, there were bound to be victims. Not only the users themselves and their partners, but in the case of Matthew James McCarthy, the faces of those profiles as well.
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Reality TV star and conservative lobbyist Josh Duggar was renowned for his large family and strong family values until an expose revealed in May he had molested five young girls as far back as 2002. Duggar claimed to have since reformed, but the Ashley Madison leaks showed he was on the site looking for an affair. That led internet sleuths to an OKCupid profile with the same user name.
To mask his OKCupid profile, Duggar used a photograph of Hollywood DJ Matthew James McCarthy, which Duggar supposedly found by Google Image searching "random guy". McCarthy is now enduring a kind of notoriety, with acquaintances and friends reaching out to let him know they've been seeing him attached to the news of Josh Duggar's infidelity.
"A teacher of mine from high school messaged me on Facebook, who I haven't even seen or talked to in years," McCarthy told Gawker. "And she was like, 'Hi Matthew, I hope you're doing well. I think you're doing well – but I saw some article and you're in the news about some sex scandal'."
According to Gawker, McCarthy's photo was uploaded to a WordPress blog in 2010 with the headline "Random Guy from Facebook (4)" which is possibly how he ended up in Josh Duggar's Google Images search.
Following this latest expose, Josh Duggar released a statement apologising, saying: "While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife." Duggar later removed the line about pornography addiction and the public statement now reads, "While espousing faith and family values, I have been unfaithful to my wife."
In response, a pastor of the Duggar's former church delivered a sermon on Sunday morning, blaming "a sexual epidemic of unprecedented proportions" in the United States. He criticised Duggar's infidelity, saying: "Adultery, being sexually or emotionally unfaithful to your spouse, that's wrong. Some of you are on the other end of someone else's destruction."
McCarthy, meanwhile, has some choice words for Duggar. "If I could tell him anything, I would say, 'Man, turn your life around. Stop lying, stop cheating, stop pretending to be other people. Just stop'," he told Gawker. "Stop what you're doing. And please stop using my pictures."
