Amanda Riley has made plenty of headlines for her elaborate cancer hoax. Her story was the subject of a hit 2023 podcast, โScamanda,โ and a new ABC News docuseries of the same name.ย
However, her husband, Cory Riley, has stayed largely out of the public eye.
He did not speak at his wifeโs sentencing hearing in May 2022, when she was handed a 60-month sentence for wire fraud and required to pay restitution to her victims. He also does not appear to have given any media interviews about her case.ย ย
Starting in 2012, and throughout much of their marriage, Amanda Riley said she was battling Hodgkinโs lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, per a sentencing from the U.S. Attorneyโs Office in the Northern District of California.
However, it later emerged that the young mom had faked having cancer. She had perpetuated the hoax for years, sharing updates about her supposed cancer journey on social media and blogs and soliciting more than $100,000 in donations from nearly 350 supporters.ย
A court document viewed byย TODAY.comย revealed that Cory Riley filed for divorce from Amanda Riley in 2024 and was living in Texas.ย
The couple met when Cory Riley was still married to his first wife, Aletta Souza. He and Souza shared a daughter, Jessa.ย Cory Riley was also a stepdad to Souzaโs older daughter, Jaymie, from Souzaโs first marriage.
Souza recounted how Amanda Riley came into the familyโs lives during her May 2022 sentencing hearing.
Her daughter Jaymie was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in 2002.ย ย
โShe was unable to be out in public or attend school because she was immunocompromised,โ Souza said. โTherefore my husband at the time, Cory Riley, and myself, did our best to accommodate Jaymieโs needs from home.โ
Amanda Riley, then 17, was hired to teach Jaymie cheerleading, Souza said at the hearing.ย
A few years later, Cory Riley and Souza divorced, and Cory Riley ended up marrying Amanda Riley in 2011. Amanda Riley became a stepmother to Jessa and she seemed to embrace the role, calling Jessa her โbonus daughter.โ
ย โAmanda was a big part of Jessaโs life because we had shared custody,โ Souza said at the sentencing hearing. โCo-parenting can be tricky, and adding a stepmom to the mix, even more difficult, but we managed for a bit, and then things changed.โ
Amanda Riley spoke about her husband at the sentencing hearing.ย ย
โI want to apologize to my family. Cory, my husband, my parents, my brothers, our best friends that we consider family, and our kids,โ she said. โOur lives will never be the same because of my choices, and Iโm so sorry for that.โย
She also mentioned their sons, Carter and Connor.
ย โOur two young boys were babies when this started, so they were too little to be affected by my bad choices,โ she said. โNow to see them as big boys who are going to see their mom go through this process, is going to flip their world upside down.โ
Amanda Riley is serving a five-year sentence at the Federal Medical Center Carswell, a federal prison in Ft. Worth, Texas. Her release date is Dec. 4, 2025, according to her inmate record.
