Revisiting the downfall of Ned Fulmer
It has been over 2 years since Ned Fulmer, one of the original members of the YouTube sensation known as the Try Guys, was caught having a ‘not-so-discreet’ affair with one of his company’s employees. The Try Guys are known as a group of coworkers-turned-friends who try a variety of things for their audience’s entertainment. Some of these activities include cooking challenges, trying various fashion trends across gender binary lines, eating the entire menu of a certain restaurant, and more.
The original Try Guys cast consisted of Eugene Yang, Keith Habersberger, Zach Kornfield, and Ned Fulmer. The group and media company was founded in 2014 through Buzzfeed, one of the most prolific media, news, and entertainment companies of the time. In 2018, The Try Guys separated from Buzzfeed, beginning an independent content creation company and have since amassed over eight million followers on their YouTube channel.
After becoming an independent studio company, the group began receiving billions of views on their YouTube channel and became co-writers of the book The Hidden Power of F*cking Up. The book followed the lives of the four men, along with the challenges and failures that helped them grow into their newfound media fame and success.
The Try Guys each had a different persona that was known and beloved among their fans. Zach was the youngest and had an innocent yet goofy personality, Keith was fun and welcoming, Eugene was charming and sarcastic, and Ned was known as the straight-and-narrow wife guy. Fulmer would never shy away from talking about how much he loved his wife, ultimately making it a part of his online persona right up until his departure from the group.
In September 2022, Fulmer was accused of cheating on his wife of ten years, Ariel Fulmer, with his employee associate producer Alexandra Herring. Herring was also engaged at the time to her partner of around ten years. The drama unfolded on social media when a Reddit user posted to the r/TheTryGuys thread expressing what seemed to be an inappropriate relationship between the two during a trip to New York City. Several other Reddit users shared similar posts confirming they were witnesses to the seeming affair that would later be confirmed to have been occurring for around eight months at that point.
Fulmer’s actions didn’t only endanger his relationship with his wife, fans, and employees, but also endangered the livelihoods of his closest friends who had worked alongside for nearly a decade. Fulmer, a co-founder of The Try Guys brand, engaged in what his official statement would call a “consensual work relationship.” Many viewers and interested outside parties expressed that they felt this affair served as an example of an imbalance of power within a relationship. The legality of the scandal had the potential to backfire on not only Fulmer and Herring, but onto the media company itself.
It is still unclear to audiences why Fulmer cheated on his wife, let alone why he was so careless with his actions. Did he care? Did he believe fans did not care enough about his actions outside of the Try Guys franchise? Was he actually attempting to hide his affair? These are some of the questions fans in the past number of years have asked that have gone unanswered.
In recent news, Ned and Ariel Fulmer are seemingly still together, and it is assumed that they have been working out their problems privately. Since the news, the Fulmers and Herring have been radio silent regarding anything to do with the affair. It is safe to say that there may never be an additional response in the future as the situation has been laid to rest on all ends. The Try Guys, on the other hand, are still functioning without Fulmer, and continue to make content for their millions of fans.
Thumbnail Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons