The Try Guys, who have 7.9 million subscribers to their channel on YouTube, have spoken out about the “deep hurt” they are experiencing after distancing themselves from fourth member Ned Fulmer in the wake of an explosive adultery scandal.
The creators of social media content The Try Guys said they were “extremely upset” by Ned Fulmer’s behavior. After Ned admitted to having an affair with a coworker, he was cut from the team.
Monday’s video was the first time Eugene Lee Yang, Keith Habersberger, and Zach Kornfeld — three-quarters of The Try Guys — had spoken publicly since Fulmer left the YouTube channel over what he called a “consensual working relationship.”
“As a result of a thorough internal review, we do not see a path forward together,” read a Sept. 27 statement posted to the official @tryguys Instagram account. “We thank you for your support as we navigate this change.”
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According to Kornfeld, “there will be things that we want to say or go into further” in the YouTube video uploaded on Monday, but “there are some legal issues we have to consider as we go through everything.” Yang, Habersberger, and Kornfeld “wanted to give (fans) a timeline on what’s transpired and some transparency into our decision making.”
According to Habersberger, Fulmer was caught “engaged in public amorous conduct” with an employee during the Labor Day weekend, and “several fans informed” them to the incident. He added Fulmer “confirmed the reports” and also confirmed, “that this had been going on for some time.”
He continued: “We had no idea this was going on.”
Although Fulmer and his wife published separate social media posts immediately after the Try Guys’ announcement in September, the channel’s statement at the time did not elaborate on what prompted or what the evaluation contained.
“Family should have always been my priority, but I lost focus and had a consensual workplace relationship,” Fulmer wrote. “I’m sorry for any pain that my actions may have caused to the guys and the fans but most of all to Ariel. The only thing that matters right now is my marriage and my children, and that’s where I am going to focus attention.”
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Ned and Ariel have been married since 2012 and share two sons.
“And thus began a three-week process of engaging with employment lawyers, corporate lawyers, HR, PR and more, in order to make sure we were taking all the necessary steps from the jump,” Yang said in the video Monday, adding they took “this very seriously.”
“We refused to sweep things under the rug,” he continued. “That is not who we are and is not what we stand for.”
According to the group, Fulmer was “immediately” removed from work activities. They also opted to remove Fulmer from new video releases pending the results of the internal review.
Additionally, “there are several videos that we’ve deemed as fully unreleasable, you will never see them and that is due to his involvement. And that’s a decision that has cost us lots of money. We will not be able to recoup that money but it’s a decision we stand by proudly,” Kornfeld said.
The Try Guys tweeted regarding Ned Fulmer rumors, saying he’ll be edited out of some new videos
Most have gotten it right but a few things this gets wrong:
– he'll be edited out of some new videos
– we'll have branded videos that don't include him
– we're not editing him out of old videos that are already released. Though, like, cool that you think that technology exists. https://t.co/uVb8VUrbLz— The Try Guys (@tryguys) October 4, 2022
Habersberger added the group cannot talk about the details of the review, but “suffice to say we found that Ned had engaged in conduct unbecoming of our team, and we knew that we could not move forward with him.”
Yang said the group was “incredibly shocked and deeply hurt by all of this.”
“This is someone who we’ve built a brand and a company with for eight years (and) we feel saddened not just personally but on behalf of our staff and our fans who believed in us,” Yang added.
“I don’t know that we’ll ever be able to fully articulate the pain we feel at this moment,” Kornfeld said. “We’re losing a friend.”
Habersberger added their “primary focus right now” is making sure the rest of their staff feels “comfortable and proud coming to work.”
In the wake of the Fulmer scandal, The Try Guys updated their social media logo to use an orange backdrop and the highlighted image of a triceratops instead of the band’s distinctive blue, green, pink, and purple quadrants with cartoon representations of each of the four members.
The Try Guys, who have over 7.9 million subscribers on YouTube, started out as a BuzzFeed webseries in 2014, documenting the founders’ crazy adventures in trying new things like driving while intoxicated (under professional supervision), baking without a recipe, and experiencing simulated labor pain.
After spending four years at BuzzFeed as the Try Guys, the four decided to start their own production firm in 2018. Now they have many staff, a documentary, a tour, and a podcast that involve family and friends of the Try Guys, including Fulmer’s wife, with whom he regularly works, and he even lists himself as her husband on his social media profiles.
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Chris Mack
