The fact that so many people have opinions about this story and “The Try Guys” is really something. I’m not judging, by the way. I get that the Try Guys were actually niche-famous, or internet-famous, and I love some niche-famous people too. It took me about 48 hours to realize that I’ve actually watched some of the older Buzzfeed videos with the “Try Guys,” even though they left Buzzfeed years ago. So, the Try Guys are a group of men who used to work for Buzzfeed but are now their own brand. They try different things and make videos about their attempts to do various things. They’re funny in a non-threatening way and they have millions of YouTube subscribers. One of the Try Guys is named Ned Fulmer. Apparently, in the videos, he was constantly mentioning his wife Ariel and their kids. He was a Wife Guy. And then he slept with a female coworker and now the Try Guys have pushed him out of the group.
Popular comedy group The Try Guys have cut their ties with Ned Fulmer, one of the four founding members, who admitted that he had a “consensual” workplace affair.
“Ned Fulmer is no longer working with The Try Guys,” the group said in a tweet Tuesday. “As a result of a thorough internal review, we do not see a path forward together. We thank you for your support as we navigate this change.”
Fulmer, in a post on Twitter shortly after the Try Guys’ announcement, confirmed rumors that had circulated on social media alleging he had engaged in an extramarital affair.
“Family should have always been my priority, but I lost focus and had a consensual workplace relationship,” Fulmer said in the post. “I’m sorry for any pain that my actions may have caused to the guys and the fans but most of all to Ariel,” he said, referring to his wife. Fulmer added, “The only thing that matters right now is my marriage and my children, and that’s where I’m going to focus my attention.”
In a post on Instagram, Ariel Fulmer wrote, “Thanks to everyone who has reached out to me — it means a lot. Nothing is more important to me and Ned than our family, and all we request right now is that you respect our privacy for the sake of our kids.”
Prior to the Try Guys announcement, fans posting in online forums had noticed that Fulmer has not appeared in the group’s recent videos and in some cases was edited out of previous episodes.
With Fulmer’s departure, The Try Guys will comprise the three remaining members: Keith Habersberger, Zach Kornfeld and Eugene Lee Yang. The group had launched their careers while at BuzzFeed, before leaving the digital media company in June 2018 to form their own production company, 2nd Try. A spokesperson for the Try Guys did not respond to a request for more information.
I was following a few different threads doing deeper dives on Ned – because I love gossip, hello, have we met – and apparently it’s been widely rumored on Reddit and Twitter that Ned is actually pretty creepy towards women. Like, the Try Guys go on tours and while they’re on the road, Ned was always acting skeevy towards women in bars. It’s always the Wife Guys, as it turns out. Anyway, I’ve seen people question why a consensual affair between adults would necessitate firing Ned, but given that the woman is described as a “coworker,” I think it’s likely that the specifics were probably problematic. As in, Ned was her direct superior, maybe giving her preferential treatment, etc.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.
They are severing ties with him because he was an EMPLOYER having an affair with an EMPLOYEE, so there is a power imbalance here
THANK YOU. The headline made my head explode. He is in a position of power over her, they were not colleagues of equal standing.
That and the fact that he pretty much build his whole career and persona on how much he loves his wife and children.
It’s all over my time line. I’ve had to resort to muting people!
It’s always the wife guys, the “religious” guys, etc etc.
Lost focus, my ass.
+1
OMG yes He is a variant of the Jesus Cheater freaks the holier than thou I’m so into my wife I sleep with subordinates on the photocopier guys. Uugh they are always always “loosing focus”
SOOO AGREE. Why is it always those guys?? I had a guy I work with—who I wasn’t interested in at all, btw—CONSTANTLY reference his wife and kids, to the point of it being weird nonsequitirs. Like, we would be together in a group in a serious manner and he’d go, “Whoa whoa WHOA susan, settle down, I am a married CHRISTIAN MAN!!” It made me question myself and wonder “am I that creepy flirty girl?” Turns out I wasn’t. That was his shtick. He cheated constantly.
OMG “I’m a married Christian Susan” translation I am a creep Uugh that sounds miserable
Yeah, I’m not surprised tbh. His whole wife shtick came off as “thou doth protest too much”
I think they do a lot of college tours so I can imagine if he had a problematic past.
Eugene is the only one I’d want to hang out with. The others are too bro-y and think their super funny.
Sorry ‘they’re’
I’ve been watching them since they left BuzzFeed so here’s my 2 cents. I love Eugene and Keith, I always found Ned incredibly boring and the Wife Guy crap is just not a substitute for a personality. I’m rather indifferent to Zach. So I’m not going to miss Ned and I’m not surprised that the guy who made Husband and Dad his whole contribution to the videos had an affair. It’s always that guy.
I believe he allegedly had said affair with not just a coworker but his employee. If you watch their videos, she’s one half of the Food Babies, Alex. Allegedly. This put the other three guys in a shitty as hell situation because they can’t fire her over this. But this isn’t a 9-5 office job so how do you actually keep working with her when Ariel is ALSO involved in the company? This has to be an HR and friendship nightmare and it’s precicely why you don’t shit where you eat.
I’m not going to miss him but I feel terrible for everyone else and his wife first and foremost.
I’m with you. Eugene and Keith are my favorites. Keith primarily because of his “eat the menu” episodes. I especially loved his cheese eating episode where he and his gal pals ate every type of cheese imaginable – despite being lactose intolerant.
And Eugene is just hella fun and interesting.
I won’t miss Ned. He was boring. I sympathize with everyone affected by this. His actions have completely destroyed the Try Guys brand and apparently he’s been like this for a LONG time. This wasn’t a one off.
i agree with most of your assessment, Emmi! Eugene is the best and Keith has his moments. I do like Zach in more limited doses, and i really enjoy when he talks about his chronic pain and how he deals with that. i think that’s really interesting, and i imagine quite helpful to a lot of people. ned was always my least favorite just because he was the most boring.
i like the food babies, and kind of hate that alex is involved. i like whenever she makes an appearance in any of the videos. i also thought she was engaged.
i’m not on twitter, so hadn’t heard anything about this before now. as you said, what a shame for everyone involved and having to move ahead. the try wives had their own podcast and youtube channel too (i didn’t watch that, i didn’t think they were that entertaining). what a mess.
I am shocked by this because I recently got into the Try Guys videos and, like everyone else here, really enjoyed Eugene and Keith! I’ve never cared much for Alex on the videos; she always seemed uncomfortable and “desperately trying to be cool” to me, so I’m not sorry that we might not see her again.
I do wonder why Ned chose to go with the Wife Guy persona when they got going. Why not be the Sporty Guy (well, Eugene is better at everything, honestly) or even the Ginger Guy?
Ned and Alex really messed up, but I wish everyone else involved the best because they seem like decent people.
ETA: Buzzfeed news’ headline about this is hilariously specific: “The Try Guys’ Ned Fulmer Confirmed He’s Left The Comedy Group After Leaked Photos Showed Him Cheating On His Wife”. I feel like whoever wrote that has some feelings about Ned and now I’m very interested.
I think in the beginning it was a running gag because he was the only married one and simply liked saying “my wife” a lot. LOL They made fun of him and became his shtick? I think he just didn’t have much of a personality. He could’ve gone with the brainy one but that’s not funny. I don’t know, it’s just all around messy and stupid.
@Emmi, you’re right about the Smart Guy being a good alternative! It tells you how little personality Ned had that I totally forgot he even had the “Yale” and “real chemist Science Guy” possibilities!
I agree. I won’t miss Ned. Eugene and Keith have always been my faves. I found Ned cringe always. I feel bad for Ariel and their two babies. Alex is/was engaged to her boyfriend of 10 years. I can’t imagine how betrayed everyone must feel. And it was a huge power imbalance as Alex worked for him and he was one of the owners and her boss.
Same. Always liked Eugene & Keith
Editing him out of older content that had already been posted seems like….. a lot. I get him not appearing going forward because he is not part of the troupe anymore, but taking him out of some of the older videos as well is an extra, complicated step. I wonder why they did that.
Ooo boy! I wonder if it’s even messier and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
They didn’t edit him out of stuff that was already posted – they just strategically edited stuff that had been filmed w/ him in it so he didn’t appear.
Yeah it seems like they’ve known for a couple of weeks and have been sorting it out amongst themselves. Then someone (probably Alex’s ex fiance) let the whole affair leak
Dynastysurf, the little excerpt says that he was edited out of some previous episodes. Is that not true? I don’t watch their content so I don’t know either way. It just struck me as weird that they would do that.
previously *filmed* yes – but only stuff that hadn’t already been released. I went through a couple old videos just to see and I haven’t seen anything where they’ve like taken the video down and re-uploaded to take him out.
Ahhh, okay. That makes a little more sense. Thanks for clearing that up! 🙂
Oh man. I knew and went to school with Ned and honestly I’m mostly just shocked to hear he isn’t gay.
I read on Twitter that the woman he slept with is a producer, so there’s a power dynamic. It’s always a red flag when guys try to monetize this brand of how much they love their wives because it’s usually the opposite.
They cut ties with him because this hurts their brand and are protecting themselves. . They portray themselves as woke and wholesome guys and the wife guy who built his whole public person on “I love my wife” got caught cheating with an employee who btw also cheated on her finance. They must have known about the affair and only started caring about it once it threatened their brand.
WTF is it with dudes and the wandering schlongs?? Why are they so eager and willing to blow up their lives for some strange? Especially men that are famous and/or recognizable. They gotta know they’re eventually going to get caught. And yes, I know women cheat too. It just seems that we see more of this about men vs women. I’m in my mid 60s and I still can’t understand this. I guess the wind blows, they get a stiffie, and they gotta put it somewhere.
I’ve watched these guys on YouTube and they’re mildly entertaining. This guy Ned always talks about his wife and how wonderful she is and she’s on a bunch of their episodes. She seems nice and I feel bad for her public humiliation. I just want to slap him Cher style and yell in his face….”get over it!”
Idk, in his case maybe he was famous (no one I knew ever heard of him til yesterday) but is he recognizable? He looks entirely generic, random guy in crowd, he probably knows that and it would make it easier for him to be out in public with a side piece and no one the wiser. He just got unlucky.
LMAO That is one of my favorite Cher moments.
I have so many theories as to why this occurs but ultimately, if you make a commitment to someone and have kids with them and say you’ll be monogamous, f*cking keep it in your pants. There’s cheating and then there’s the stupidity of cheating with an employee while your wife is involved in your company as well. There’s no excuse, you’re an adult, don’t be a moron.
Okay I have been a Try Guy fans for YEARS. Dating back to when they were still with BuzzFeed.
This goes so much deeper than just him having an affair with a coworker.
1. Ned was one of the CEOs of the company – he was having an affair with one of his direct subordinates. Thereby leaving the company (Try Guys) open to sexual mosconduct from ANY employee – not just Alexandria (the producer he was sleeping with)
2. Alex was not only a Producer on the channel – but was ON-AIR talent! She had and another producer YB had their own series and now that has had to be scrapped- which mean YB has now lost her series becauwe of Alex and Ned.
3. Alex IS ENGAGED! Or was anyway.
4. Alex worked DIRECTLY with Ned’s wife Ariel – Ariel and the other Try Wives have their own podcast. Which Alex worked on!
5. They have to edit Ned out because they no longer want to PAY him for his likeness.
6. These people are all friends. Ariel and the other Try Wives along with the guys. This had to be such a betrayal for them.
What’s worse is that he’s supposed to be their HR!
That’s ridiculous. They should have a separate HR person for a company that size.
Exactly!
@Izzy They actually aren’t that large and it’s not uncommon for smaller companies to not have a specific HR person.
I’m a big fan, too! Their videos got me through a lot of the darkest pandemic days. It’s embarrassing to admit the degree of my parasocial relationship with them but I am so invested! I feel so awful for Ariel. I mean she married a chemist who did improv. I don’t think even this level of fame was her dream. I wish for her the best couples therapist and a shark lawyer if she ends up needing one.
I agree with all of this. Ugh. Try Guys videos have gotten me through some rough patches. Embarrassing, but true. My heart goes out to Ariel. I can’t imagine going through that kind of betrayal let alone seeing articles about it on CNN.com. I wonder if the other guys knew about the affair and tried to get him to shut it down. It’s hard to imagine those two were super-successful at being covert. What an awful situation.
Oh damn, thank you for the excellent bullet point break down. I knew nothing about any of these people before this morning and did not understand why a cheating story blew up the way this did.
What a resounding mess. I feel really sorry for everyone who’s going to have to deal with the fallout of this situation they didn’t create. You said it; it’s such a betrayal on many levels.
I also think that Ned and Alex’s behavior was very self-destructive. It’s not like this was on the downlow. Supposedly they were seen making out in a NYC nightclub. That’s not exactly the behavior of two people acknowledging their fame or responsibilities. I’m expecting a substance abuse apology any day now (bc how else do you excuse this?).
Also, ex fiancé for Alex. Supposedly he’s the one who blew this open.
Alex was in a long term relationship and engaged for a year iirc. but I know she/they suppose to get married end of this year
That was the appropriate action for him. I wish his wife strength. He was quite bland and didn’t really offer much. Eugene and Keith are the most engaging. He won’t be missed.
Never heard of these guys before this article, so just coming here to say that the last picture containing John M’s girlfriend in an article about a wife guy who messed up is *chef’s kiss*! Thank you @ Kaiser.
This site offers a lot of things and thoughtful choice of photos is always one of them!
Man there’s so much stuff that I’ve never even heard of. Saw the viral news on twitter yesterday and was all “who?” for both the guy and the group. I assumed it was a famous band I’d somehow never heard of at first.
have to believe it isn’t all Wife Guys who are secretly creeps and have affairs. Prince Harry is a Wife Guy.
He’s not. He doesn’t use Meghan to gain popularity. She’s his wife, not his identity. Every married man is not a “wife guy”
Harry is hardly a “wife guy” making money off his marriage, his situation is quite different.
Yeah, I wouldn’t really consider Harry a “wife guy”.
I always got a kick out of their videos where the guys get tortured (body waxing, labor pain, etc.) but I agree with everyone who said Keith and Eugene are the funniest. I didn’t have an opinion one way or another about Ned but hearing he’s a cheater is disappointing. I’m glad they booted him.
Marriages sometimes fall apart. Husband cheat, wives cheat. Meh. I think the thing that is problematical here is that he was an employer having an affair with an employee. This crosses the line because it is an abuse of power, undermines the claim of consensuality, and creates a hostile workplace for everyone else. Totally not okay. They were right to yeet him.
Cheating isn’t “falling apart”. It is only meh if you have no heart or ability to bond with other humans in a lasting meaningful way. It is a series of selfish and damaging unilateral decisions that remove the consent of the spouse and often ruin their emotional and sometimes physical health. It is cataclysmic cruel behavior that can result in PTSD
As a long time fan of the Try Guys, it is WILD to me how much traction this story has gotten in the mainstream. While Ned was never my favorite of the guys, I did enjoy him to some extent, and I can’t believe he blew up every facet of his life over an affair. So messy.
Hopefully the Try Guys continue on without him and start getting way more opportunities (and fans) as a result of all of this newfound attention.
Another long time, since-buzzfeed-days fan here… what gets me the most is while Ned’s always been billed as the wife guy, but whenever the guys talk about the group they talk about how Ned’s the *responsible* one, the one who manages a lot of the boring behind the scenes stuff (which makes up for being the least interesting one in front of the camera, honestly). So the fact that he so thoroughly blew up *every* facet of his life? He’s likely to lose his literal family (Ariel and the boys), but also blew up his work family too. Those guys have talked about how they see each other as brothers. All their significant others are part of the company. The whole office is in front and behind the camera, and every time they show up they look like a really tight knit group. They have a freaking tv show on the food network as a foursome! This just implodes everything, not only for him but for the other guys in the group, which they’ve worked together intimately for almost a freaking decade. He’s basically wrecked things for almost every single person he (presumably) cares for. I cannot imagine what it’s been like for the past couple of weeks at work while they’ve been figuring out what tf to do, while presumably working with the two people who had the affair and ruined everything. (To be clear, Ned gets like 90% of the blame.)
This tells me that Ned’s been shitty for a *long* time. You don’t do something this dumb (I mean, they were at a Harry Styles concert together! And making out in a NYC club! There’s pictures and videos!) if it isn’t part of a pattern of behaviour that escalates.
That means Ned has been, at the very least, inappropriate with women while his wife was pregnant with his sons. Disgusting.
Yes to all of this. It’s very hard to believe that he has had faultless behavior up to this point.
As for the blame part, though, I think he gets 100% of the blame for cheating on Ariel and Alex (or whatever her name is) gets 100% of the blame for cheating on her fiance. There’s no part of Ned’s cheating that is anybody else’s fault.
It bears repeating. 9 out of 10 men have or will cheat to some degree. Everyone is like:Adam Levine of course duh” but…the only true requirement of being a cheating man is having a wandering/ wondering dong.
9 out of 10 seems high.
“20% of men and 13% of women reported that they’ve had sex with someone other than their spouse while married, according to data from the recent General Social Survey(GSS).”
HE had a wife and kids? Okay…
Lol at tossing in that photo with John Mulaney’s girlfriend!
I also gotta say – they didn’t have to fire him. Rich white guys have done worse and not lost their jobs. Bravo to the group for doing what’s right and trashing him.
There is more evidence coming out that they’ve been having an affair for a year and a lot of people knew. Nothing was done until the cheaters were spotted out in the wild, the woman’s fiance was informed, and he blew it all up.
Selfish people being selfish. Could they not have glanced into the future and foreseen the explosions that would occur if they engaged in an affair? Not just the damage to his wife and her fiance, but how it would affect jobs/livelihoods? Absurd. These two deserve the dragging that they are getting.
I was actually shocked when I read that yesterday. I’ve been watching their videos for YEARS and while I believed most of their exessive behaviours (like the constant mentioning of his wife) were performative for the sake of the videos, I would have never thought. His wife also appeared on on a lot of their videos and a podcast with the try guys partners and – yeah it just broke me. I don’t trust any men anymore.
Affairs involve lying, gaslighting, and sneaking around. Those traits don’t usually lead to a stellar job performance.
100% this! It seldom (possibly never) is just dishonesty in that one arena. There are many cheaters who make it a sort of game and delight in “pulling one over” – hardly who you want to tie your professional and financial success to, let alone be vulnerable emotionally with
Long time watcher here too. Ned has always been strategic about his life, ambitions and image. He never shared openly who he is, besides wanting to be successful. His wife and him had one ambition besides kids – which was money and success. They were sorta of a team fully focused to get money, status and social approval – that included family. I think he has the typical white Yale bro thing going on. Very toxic masculinity pressurered money and success demands. I think he has never explored authenticity and thus here we are. Anyone pushing themselves this hard, without being true to who they are, will end up soulspliting and crashing.