This Is The End Of The Wife Guy Era
Ned Fulmer, one-fourth of the popular YouTube empire, The Try Guys, tailored his entire personality around his wife. He was the “wife guy” of the group, despite not being the only one who was married. While fellow married guy Keith Habersberger had other interests, like music and food, Ned could only ever talk about Ariel and, later, his children. For many fans, this was heart-warming. He was proof that good men exist out there, spending their days rightfully worshiping their wives. But then something happened this week that shook the total foundation of the Wife Guy persona.
We all found out in different ways. Some of us saw the original Reddit post that divulged the bad news. Others got wind on TikTok once the opinions and evidence started rolling in. Or maybe it was Twitter. Either way, there was talk of Ned being caught kissing someone in a New York City night club. And for those of us who were already noticing his absence in recent Try Guys videos, it was making a lot of sense. For a deep dive into the proof, this twitter user outlines it nicely:
There was video evidence. People were noticing Ned actually cut from videos he was definitely filmed in. Fans dissected who was following who. As the evidence mounted, so did the speculation on basically any form of media. For the people involved who still had their comments turned on on Instagram, they were flooded with questions and hate. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t guzzling down every tidbit for hours like it was the most interesting gossip of the year. (And maybe it is!).
As is often the case with controversies, I expected to never get a straight answer. I thought maybe, maybe, there’d be a comment from the Try Guys that Ned wasn’t with them anymore, but it’d be clouded in mystery. I was wrong. In quick succession, there were official statements, starting with the Try Guys account:
Compelling, right? It wasn’t Ned leaving on his own for creative differences or to start a new chapter. It was the company deciding that he, a co-owner, had to go. Still a little vague though, until we got Ned’s statement shortly after:
And so we get our answer. He was cheating on the wife he supposedly cared about over all others. And everyone was correct on who it was with: Try Guys employee and member of the duo, Food Babies, Alexandria Herring. Up until this drama, she was engaged–and it was her now-former fiancé who leaked the story. But I take issue with something in Ned’s above statement: It can’t be a “consensual workplace relationship” if one person has career power over the other. Ned is a co-owner. Alexandria is his employee. Perhaps that’s why the company decided to get rid of him and why she’s still listed as working there. It isn’t enough to cheat on his wife, but to have an inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate gives all the ick.
It can’t be a ‘consensual workplace relationship’ if one person has power over the other.
Ned Fulmer, the guy who made his entire personality about his wife and how much he loved her, turned out to be a lying cheater. If that reminds you of someone, look no further than stand-up comedy icon John Mulaney.
Watch any John Mulaney stand-up special and you’ll hear countless jokes about his now ex-wife. But rather than making her the butt of the joke like some greasy, leather jacket-clad comic from the ’80s, Mulaney always talked about Anna Marie Tendler with reverence. He was the Wife Guy of stand-up, and female fans ate it up. If you were on TikTok before the eventual fall of his marriage, you’d regularly see him on compilations of “guys who I’d let hold my drink while I went to the bathroom.” Fans saw his complete devotion to Tendler and propped him up as an example of what they wanted in their own love lives.
Like Ned Fulmer’s recent fall from grace, John Mulaney stans had a rude awakening in May 2021 when it was revealed that Mulaney was leaving his wife for Olivia Munn. And when they announced Munn’s pregnancy in September, 2021, it quickly became clear that the timeline of events meant he had been cheating on his wife with the actress. Further proof can be scene in Tendler’s hauntingly gorgeous photograph titled “Dinner in March.”
Much like the Try Guys fallout, the John Mulaney drama resulted in a chorus of disappointment from his female fans. And now that this continues to happen with the self-aggrandizing “wife guys,” we have to start becoming suspect of the trend. It’s one thing to love your wife and talk highly of her, but it’s quite another when you shout it from the rooftops so much. “The husband doth protest too much.” It’s sus.
Because really, if you make your entire identity about how much you love your wife, if it’s all you talk about, you have to wonder why. Are these Wife Guys using their own guilt as over-compensation for actually being trash husbands? It looks like that might be the case. So let’s make this official: Being a Wife Guy is now a serious red flag.