The Try Guys have released a video statement amid public outcry after one of the members Ned Fulmer was found to have cheated on his wife.
In a video uploaded to Instagram on Oct 4, the remaining three Try Guys shared how they were “deeply hurt” by Ned’s actions and also their thoughts and plans going forward.
“We were always planning on a public statement and we’re working towards that with our team, but in light of rapidly accelerating speculation, we knew we couldn’t wait any longer,” Zach Kornfeld, 32, said.
“We’re obviously incredibly shocked and deeply hurt by all of this. This is someone whom we’d built a brand and a company with for eight years — we feel saddened, not just personally, but on behalf of our staff and our fans who believed in us.”
Ned, 35, was spotted by fans acting intimately with a female employee while they were on a business trip in Las Vegas.
Since then, footage of their interactions have been shared on social media such as Reddit and Twitter.
Ned’s actions drew attention because he was known for his “family man” image and has made his wife, Ariel, and his children a key part of the content he creates, Forbes reported.
Said 35-year-old Keith Habersberger, another Try Guy: “We reached out to check on that employee; Ned confirmed the reports and that this had been going on for some time, which was obviously very shocking to us.
“We just want you to know that we had no idea this was going on. All of that information was just as shocking to us as all of this has been for you this week.”
Try Guy Eugene Lee Yang, who wore a look of subdued anger throughout, then explained that they engaged lawyers and human resource and public relations experts to manage the bomb that would implode due to Ned’s mistakes.
“This is something we took very seriously, we refused to sweep things under the rug. That is not who we are, and is not what we stand for,” Eugene, 36, said with a heavy tone.
But their work didn’t stop there and the Try Guys team had to remove Ned from videos and merchandise pending professional review by their human resources team, even going so far as to dump entire videos due to Ned’s role in them.
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The effort put into editing videos and scouring their published works was something Zach expressed gratitude for.
And the decision to make these changes cost them a lot of money, Zach admitted, adding that these losses would be unrecoverable. However, he also said that the decision to do so is one that they “stand by proudly”.
Added Keith: “We can’t 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.”
Zach also said, choking back tears: “I don’t know that we’ll ever be able to fully articulate the pain we feel at this moment… we’re losing a friend, we’re losing someone we built the company with whom we have countless memories with.”
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‘A Family at the Centre of This’
Although the image of the Try Guys brand was at risk due to Ned, Keith also elaborated on why they chose not to “rush into the announcement” — Ned’s wife Ariel and their two sons, aged two and four this year, are at the core of this matter.
“We ask that you respect the privacy of the family members and employees who may be caught up in this,” Eugene reminded fans.
“The internet has a tendency to be a lot harsher towards women than men — so please, we ask that you exercise kindness.”
And now that the Try Guys are down by one, things will change, Zach said as he tried to be optimistic.
“What we hope is that within this there’s also the opportunity for positive growth and better videos ahead. But it’s gonna be hard. It’s this whole thing is gonna be really f***ing hard.”
This article was first published on AsiaOne and republished on theAsianparent with permission.
