‘Scamanda’: Where is Cory Riley, Amanda Riley’s husband, now?

Amanda Riley has made plenty of headlines for her elaborate cancer hoax. Her story was the subject of a hit 2023 podcast, “Scamanda,” and a new ABC News docuseries of the same name. 

However, her husband, Cory Riley, has stayed largely out of the public eye.

He did not speak at his wife’s 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.  

Starting in 2012, and throughout much of their marriage, Amanda Riley said she was battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, per a sentencing from the U.S. Attorney’s 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. 

A court document viewed by TODAY.com revealed that Cory Riley filed for divorce from Amanda Riley in 2024 and was living in Texas. 

The couple met when Cory Riley was still married to his first wife, Aletta Souza. He and Souza shared a daughter, Jessa. Cory Riley was also a stepdad to Souza’s older daughter, Jaymie, from Souza’s first marriage.

Souza recounted how Amanda Riley came into the family’s lives during her May 2022 sentencing hearing.

Her daughter Jaymie was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in 2002.  

“She was unable to be out in public or attend school because she was immunocompromised,” Souza said. “Therefore my husband at the time, Cory Riley, and myself, did our best to accommodate Jaymie’s needs from home.”

Amanda Riley, then 17, was hired to teach Jaymie cheerleading, Souza said at the hearing. 

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 “bonus daughter.”

 “Amanda was a big part of Jessa’s life because we had shared custody,” Souza said at the sentencing hearing. “Co-parenting can be tricky, and adding a stepmom to the mix, even more difficult, but we managed for a bit, and then things changed.”

Amanda Riley spoke about her husband at the sentencing hearing.  

“I want to apologize to my family. Cory, my husband, my parents, my brothers, our best friends that we consider family, and our kids,” she said. “Our lives will never be the same because of my choices, and I’m so sorry for that.” 

She also mentioned their sons, Carter and Connor.

 “Our two young boys were babies when this started, so they were too little to be affected by my bad choices,” she said. “Now 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.”

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.