The “Try Guys” actually found out that their co-founder Ned Fulmer was cheating on his wife, Ariel Fulmer, on September 5 — four weeks before they announced he’d been fired.
The remaining members — Eugene Lee Yang, Keith Habersberger and Zach Kornfeld — addressed their fans on Monday for the first time since announcing that Ned had been fired from the group.
“Ned Fulmer is no longer working with the ‘Try Guys,'” Kornfeld said in a YouTube video — which they called “what happened” — as Yang and Habersberger sat next to him on a couch.
“By now we assume that you have seen the Reddit threads and TikToks and tweets and news articles. We want to give you a timeline of what happened and some transparency in our decision making.”
Habersberger, who looked gloomy, continued: “During the Labor Day weekend, several fans warned us that they had seen Ned and an employee who had behaved romantically in public.”
He went on to say that they contacted the employee to “check up” her before Ned, 35, “confirmed the reports and since confirmed that this had been going on for a while, which was obviously very shocking to us. “
“We just want you to know that we had no idea this was going on,” he added. “All that information was as shocking to us as it was to you this week.”
Yang, 36, added that they spent three weeks talking to several lawyers, human resources and public relations experts to make sure they were taking the necessary steps.
“We were acutely aware that this ran counter to the values of the company we’ve built and those of everyone who works here,” he continued, taking a moment to recover. “This is something we take very seriously and we refuse to sweep under the rug, that’s now who were and that’s not what we stand for.”
Kornfeld, 32, then revealed that they “immediately removed Ned from work,” which will explain his absence from the most recent “Try Guys” videos and social media.
The team removed it from their merch store and digitally deleted it from old videos and all marketing products. In fact, Kornfeld said their decision to completely cut some of the videos that featured Ned heavily cost them a lot of money, but they remain “proud” of their decision.
Habersberger, 35, admitted they couldn’t release the findings of their investigation for legal reasons, saying they felt that “Ned was involved in behavior that didn’t suit our team and we knew we couldn’t move forward with him.”
He also explained that the reason it took so long to make the cases public was that “real people were affected” and that there is a “family in the middle”.
“We are incredibly shocked and deeply hurt by it all,” Yang added, holding back tears. “This is someone we have built a company and brand with for eight years. We feel sad, not only personally, but on behalf of our staff and fans who believed in us.”
A tearful Kornfeld continued, “I don’t know if we can articulate the pain we feel right now. It’s hard to revisit old videos that we love and are proud of, we lose a friend, someone we built a business with, that we have countless memories of […] We’re sorry this ever happened and we don’t know what else to say.
“This will change here, but we hope that within this there is an opportunity for positive growth and better videos ahead, but it will be difficult,” he added. “This whole thing is going to be damn hard.”
Meanwhile, Yang begged their fans to “show kindness,” pointing out that Alexandria Herring has received a lot of criticism from fans, before noting that more information about the company changes will be revealed soon.
Last week, the Try Guys were suddenly scrambling when the internet discovered that Ned had been cheating on his wife for 10 years with Herring, a producer on the show.
After they announced that he was fired on September 27, Ned released a statement of his own explaining the situation.
“Family should have always been my priority, but I lost focus and had a consensual relationship in the workplace,” he wrote after kissing Haring at a bar in New York City.
“I’m sorry for the pain my actions may have caused the boys and the fans, but especially Ariel,” he continued. “All that matters now is my marriage and my children, and that’s what I’m going to focus on.”
Ariel, 36 – with whom Ned shares sons Wesley, 4, and Finley, 1 – also spoke out amid the scandal.
“Thank you to everyone who has contacted me – it means a lot. Nothing is more important to me and Ned than our family, and all we ask now is that you respect our privacy for the sake of our children,” she wrote. her Instagram.
Despite the infidelity, Ariel and Ned may be staying together as they were both seen on September 28 wearing their wedding rings while they were out together.
The same can’t be said of Herring, who was engaged to her boyfriend Will Thayer for ten years. The two have seemingly ended things after he deleted all their photos from his social media.
She has not yet raised the affair publicly.