Media stars, The Try Guys, have built a brand off of portraying four fun-loving guys who like to “try” all kinds of new
experiences together. They have always promoted very motivational and inclusive values that had many people following their YouTube journey for years. Ned “I Love My Wife” Fulmer, one of the four members, was recently exposed for cheating on his wife of 10 years and the mother of his two children, Ariel Fulmer, creating a
negative ripple effect among the entire business.
Speculation about Fulmer’s relationship with one of his employees, Alex Herring, had started appearing in the media in late September. The news was confirmed on September 27, 2022, when the company released a statement on
Instagram announcing Ned’s departure from the group.
Fans were heartbroken and surprised to hear the news about one of the beloved members.
“Very rarely do I get shocked by celebrity news but this literally has me feeling sick,” someone on Instagram commented.
Taking it further, some fans are much more distraught than others.
“And just like that my faith in men is crushed. If this guy was in love with his wife for YEARS that it was literally his entire personality and he still cheated, there’s no hope,” another fan stated.
Many fans had a deep emotional connection to these influencers, and learning that one of them could have done such a horrible thing was devastating.
Not only did Fulmer cheat on his wife of 10 years, but he had a very inappropriate workplace relationship consisting of an employer and an employee contributing to a risky power dynamic that could lead to a future lawsuit. The Try Guys not only lost a longtime friend, but someone they were running a business with.
On October 3, 2022, they released a 5-minute video explaining as much of the controversy as they could without exposing many details.
On October 6, two members of the group, Keith Habersberger and Zach Kornfeld, released an hour-long podcast episode delving more in-depth on how the situation has affected them personally and financially.
“I don’t think that I really ever stopped to emotionally process it,” Kornfeld said. “Even still, I don’t know that I have. Because it was just, ‘OK, we have to act. We have to go. This thing happened, how do we react accordingly?’”
Habersberger and Kornfeld explained how they needed to focus on the legal implications before they could begin to even think about their own feelings
It affected not only their group of four, but their family, friends, company, and millions of people on the internet as well.
As popular as they have grown over the years, they also spoke about how they never had this much of a focus on them.
“It showed we had a really big effect on a lot of people,” Habersberger said.
Although they collectively experienced something very negative together, it has given them much room to grow and prosper with things they may not have been open to trying in the past.
“We feel saddened,” Eugene Lee Yang, the fourth and final member said. “Not just
personally, but on behalf of our staff and our fans that believed in us.”