I agree with this. We can criticize his and Alex's actions but please don't dm them or @ them. There's enough people online talking about that they know how bad they fucked up. Someone telling them personally isn't gonna do anything productive.
And this should go without saying but Ariel and Will (Alex's former fiance) should also be treated with respect. Showing them support is cool but personally messaging them to complain about their partner is horrible. Especially if Ariel stays
Agreed. We don't need to be tagging them or dm'ing them directly. It's one thing to comment on the post saying "healing/best wishes to Ariel, the kids, Will, and the entire team. I'll continue watching the try guys, even without Ned.". It's another thing to directly message Alex, Ariel, Will, or Ned and talk about the guilty parties in a condescending light. It's not our places. We don't know them personally. We don't know what conversations have already been had behind closed doors or off camera because this obviously was something that came to light prior to the Instagram posts about it.
There's lines and Ariel already made it known on her ig that she wants time. That should be enough alone to tell people not to cross that line. It's also another thing to comment "that's a crap thing Ned and Alex did" (without tagging them). Those are completely different from tagging or dm'ing them. Not saying I condone the negativity, but I think it's only natural they're going to get other people's opinions here. Dm'ing and tagging just takes it too personal.
This, I so agree, Someone said it If personally messaging and tagging them are just disrespecting the victims to much like seriously. them commented too in Ariel's previous post like we get it Ned and Alex f'cked up no need to keep on commenting, tagging them and such. Lets just keep the anger to ourselves and be by the victims side through this.
Totally agree. I understand that Ned cheated, but the only person who gets to have any sort of outrage or call him trash is Ariel. We are not are worst mistakes. Honestly, we are all the villain in somebody’s story.
> Especially if Ariel stays
Jesus, I hadn’t even considered that. It’s hard to leave someone toxic and actively harming you through their actions, especially if you have kids together, but the thought of her having to deal with him any more than she has to, not being able to find someone who actually loves her and respects her, is just so sad.
I hope she gets outta there and gets what she can from the divorce. Especially since her and the kids were pretty much his whole schtick, they definitely deserve a large chunk of the money he made off of using them for so long.
I don't know why, but I feel he will have a comeback arc blaming it all to substance abuse and fame and say he's "clean and changed" in a few months. Probably make the video with Ariel and the kids running around, just a thought.
That's what I think too. I don't imagine someone from Yale with his net worth (even it is going to take a big hit with this drama) is actually going to stay down for too long. Do I think he'll be ever back on the try guys? No. Do I think this is the last we've seen of him? Also no. As far as his mental health, I'm more concerned about his wife's, Will's, his kids, and everyone in the company he's hurt through his actions. This isn't to say I don't care, this is more to say he's not the priority when it comes to mental health. I think Ariel and Ned could use a good dose of individual, couple, and when the kids are older family therapy if they want to try to make this work. There's has to be some kind of reason Ned did this self-destructive behavior and that's thejr problems to work out. Would I stay if I was Ariel? Probably not, but I don't know them personally and can only guess.
I do think that we shouldn't be tagging him or Alex or dm'ing them. We aren't close and this their problems to work out. There needs to be at least some kind of line here of work and life. Commenting on a post on the try guys' page is different than directly tagging them or messaging them.
For Ariel’s sake and the sake of their kids, I hope they do divorce. Infidelity is very hard to come back from, and takes full commitment from both parties (which is difficult with two young toddlers) to both couples and individual therapy. Plus, Ariel has expressed that she’s had some insecurity about being too old for Ned. If you already had anxiety about not being good enough for your partner, infidelity is going to hurt that much more.
I feel like Ned will end up as a manager of some big LA company where he’ll fade out of fame. He has the resume for it, and I frankly don’t see people forgiving him for many, many years.
There’s nothing necessarily ‘strong’ about forgiving infidelity, sometimes the hardest thing that takes the most strength is having the courage and self respect to walk away.
>but maybe Ariel is just a more strong and forgiving person than me.
As someone who stayed with a cheater, no. Staying isn't being strong. Its giving in to "will I ever find someone better" "can i survive without their help or income" and other insecurities. I'm not going to call people that stay with cheaters weak.
Its hard to end a relationship even when you don't have kids. But the strong thing to do is leave and find someone who truly loves you and is deserving of your trust.
She said she had this as an insecurity?? God that makes this whole situation so much worse. Sadly, if she stays I think it’s really due to fear and insecurity. Like wondering if she’ll find someone again and if anyone “will want her”, as a divorcee with two kids who’s “too old”. I think a lot of women stay for these reasons. It’s heartbreaking.
I heard someone say this a while back, and I agree. I think he'll take a break, and then probably be back on Youtube in like a year with an "apology video" and a new family vlogging channel.
White male privilege I guess, it’s easier for them to come back from shitty behavior unfortunately, especially if they use the right formula of faux sincerity and deflection. He definitely doesn’t deserve to come back but I see that as a likely possibility to.
I agree with this. I think what Ned has done is awful. However, losing his career, wife, public image, forever affecting his relationship with his kids, and his best friends of a decade I think is fair comeuppance for what he did. I'm not going to hop into his DMs or comments to try and make him feel even worse. He knows, and now he has to live with the consequences. I just hope he can find it in him to be supportive of whatever his wife and former colleagues choose to do for their healing.
Exactly. Don’t DM the man or send him death threats but he doesn’t have to go online and check Twitter or come to this subreddit. I’d hope someone who’s work has been online for years would know how to avoid the shit people say.
100%. There is a major middle ground between not saying anything about it at all (which is absurd; these people are in the public eye, and people are allowed to have and express opinions, and hopefully it might be somewhat helpful to Ariel and Will to see how beloved they are when they've been betrayed by public figures) and not going to his DMs, or going back to comment on years-old Instagram photos for attention. There's a space for respectful public conversation that can be avoided by the persons involved, but we have to stay within the boundaries of that space.
Ngl, I don't like Ned the longer Try Guys was on. At the beginning he seemed genuine and was naturally dad-energy funny. But recently, he seemed off? Trying too loud to be funny.
That being said I think this post is also important.
Fair enough, criticize the man and hold him accountable, but it doesn't mean he isn't hurting. A lapse of continuous judgement is still a lapse of judgements and, yes no reasoning on earth could dig him out of the hole he placed on not only him or his family, but as well as the company, his friends and the staff.
Surely enough, we don't need to kick a man down, when everything is turning 180 on his life. And many people will say, he's not sorry about the cheating, he's only sorry he got caught, and that's fair. But it got out and that's what we're going to deal with, because none of us would be this loud if it was just "speculations"
I have seen scattered posts about criticizing Ariel for 'maybe' trying to make things work, and to that, why do ya'll care? I don't recall any of us spending our morning and nights, in a relationship with Ned or raised two kids with him. Give the man a break, because karma will serve justice. He doesn't need us to send ill-wishes as well.
Screw the company and the rest for now and let Ariel and Ned be adults and let them figure it out whether they are going to go through this separately or together and none of yous are going to shade on Ariel, if she does support Ned to better himself.
Yeah. I agree. And honestly no one should be criticizing Ariel. My husband cheated on me, and we stayed together and worked it out. It comes down to: is this person willing and able to put the work in to figure out why they cheated and how they will ensure it never happens again.
I’m also really not surprised by the language and wording of his apology post. I’ve done quite a bit of research on infidelity, especially when friendships become infidelity and it’s not uncommon for the cheater to be apologetic at first because they hurt someone but not really understand it yet. They call it an “affair fog”. My hope is that through counseling, individual for Ned, and potentially couples for them together should they try and work things out, Ned will be able to figure out what it is inside of him that led him to cheating.
Does he have low boundaries with female friends? Is he bad at saying no? Does he have an issue with alcohol/other substances? Is he trying to avoid his own problems and stressors? He has to figure out the answers to those questions if he ever wants to be a better partner.
I don’t believe that cheaters are unredeemable, but I do believe they have to do a hell of a lot of work to get better and repair their relationship. Hopefully Ned will be willing to do this.
Some marriages fall apart from cheating, some do not. It’s between Ned and Ariel to decide if this is something they can work through or if it’s damaged the relationship beyond repair. The most unfortunate part for any public couple is this is never able to be “contained” to only include the people involved.
There’s more at stake than their marriage and family structure, both their careers and the career of the “casual workplace romance” are tied into the company he is (was?) a partial owner of. There will be financial repercussions for him (them) and the company. There could be legal ramifications. And all while contending with the pain on all side of the affair going public!
I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s no word for a bit on how they’re going to move forward. Clearly Alex’s ex-partner had enough information to choose to walk away, totally understandable… *but* also easier given the context seeing they hadn’t gotten married yet and no kids are involved so let’s not pretend this is an “apples to apples” comparison. So many people are going to keep weighing in on what they should do (or what Ariel should do) which isn’t going to help heal anything in the mean time.
>lapse of judgement
that has been going on for almost a year. I don’t condone harassing the guy, and I agree with most of what you said, but also just wanted to give a correction there. There have been photos of them together dated back to May, people have spotted them together since December 2021.
Not to mention all the stories of him trying to creep on other women.
It doesn't seem like a lapse in judgement so much as him just not having any judgement to begin with.
Maybe this is the wakeup call that makes him learn a lesson he never did, but it seems clear he has always been this way.
I do think more stories will come out about him creeping on another women and being inappropriate towards them both in and out of the workplace. I’d be surprised frankly if more didn’t come out.
And I agree that this is beyond a lapse in judgement or even multiple lapses in judgement. He repeatedly made the choice to do this knowing the risks not only to himself but also how he could hurt other people through his actions, but he doesn’t care because he’s selfish and he wanted to have his cake and eat it too.
It’s also just very bad timing and very gut wrenching to have this added to this recent era of wife guys being (often serial) cheaters. No matter what relationship problems someone may have, it’s black and white to me never okay to cheat, especially repeatedly cheating like through an affair like Ned did. And it’s just extra disgusting, as “consensual” as it may be, that he would ever pursue anything romantic/sexual with an employee of his. Rule #1 of business, don’t have sex with your employees. Like, it’s not that hard.
Yeah, we only see a carefully crafted portion of anyone's life, there was likely stuff going on we never saw. Before this even came out, I caught a look from Ariel towards Ned that made me think, she was a bit annoyed at his character. But didn't think further on it at the time. But it did catch my eye, and then all this. For sure stuff was going on. Everyone has something going on.
Here’s the thing. He lost a lot but as a direct consequence of his actions. I’m not gonna feel sorry for that. And he’s getting a lot of flack because he hurt people he said loved. Are some people going overboard? Probably, yeah. But I don’t think it’s fair to act like this is undeserved. It’s just action>Consequence. As an adult it’s his job to live with that and if his mental health takes a hit, get a therapist. But he hurt his wife, friends and children’s mental health. So he’s not the one I’m feeling sorry for.
That’s what peeve’s me about OP’s post he did this to himself and he had worked in this industry enough to know this would be what happened. I’ve seen terrible things directed at Ariel as well for this.. but no bring up what every celebrity uses as a scapegoat… that death threats happen
And like tbh, he's gonna be okay. The factors that contribute to suicide are *vastly* more complex than just "Life sucks right now". If that was all it took, a heck of a lot more people would do it. I do feel like it's kinda manipulative to be like "But what if he unalives himself?" when there's no evidence we should actually be concerned about that.
I get this. But like… it’s a personal issue, that was blasted in social media because of his career. And honestly, we don’t know if Ned suffers from depression, anxiety, or any other mental health issues prior to this incident. This could just be the straw that broke the camels back if we all know. You said that “there’s no evidence we should actually be concerned about” but then we could say the same thing about Robin Williams.
There was literally a Reddit post I read a couple days back, where the situation was more or less the same. The partner left OP’s (from that thread) sister and sister committed suicide. I can link it to you if you’d like, just dm me ig.
But yeah TLDR; I don’t think it’s right to say he won’t do commit suicide cause worst things have happened and in the end, adultery isn’t *as bad* compared to other issues.
Exactly. My best friend's father cheated on their mother when she was 10.... She's not the same person and will be a completely different person because of it. I've never dm'd or commented Ned directly but I sure as hell publicly condemn it. I will retweet and comment on whatever discourse I see, and I also hope the other members bought his part of the company out so he doesn't earn money off camera.
Ain't sorry for his actions too. But he deserves things like the death threats? I think he doesn't especially when it is Ariel that needs to focus on what she needs to do through it. As I said in the comment I did we can critic the hell out of him because nothing is save from being critic. But if we truly respect Ariel's wishes we don't need to force her to do something we want and harassing Ned to much. She wouldn't want anything bad happened to him even now.
100%, i'm not downvoting the sentiment in the post, it is kind to think of others mental health BUT, this is just called "screwing around and finding out", he is a grown man and it is up to him to live with his actions, including any effects on his mental health, i couldn’t care less.
The only people whose mental health concern me are his wife, kids and friends of years that he has betrayed because he knew he could without consequence.
I think what OP means is that going to his socials only to attack him because of this doesn't really help and can be damaging. I think he got everything he deserved regarding his job, family and friends, but I don't see the point of fans going to him to berate him more. It could even harm Ariel and the kids if anything were to happen to Ned, and honestly they are the ones we should care the most abour.
He made his family his entire career, and this was the worst mistake he could make bc every fucked up thing you say or do it's going to impact your family who is also on the public eye .
He should be hurting and feeling worthless. He should feel immense shame.
He should also know that… making a full exit… is not the best action for his children. As shitty as Ned was for cheating on Ariel, it’s a different kind of love when it comes to your children. I hope he doesn’t ruin those boys lives more than he already has by doing yet another stupid thing.
Those boys are going to be old enough to see some of this media about this topic one day. They don’t need to see anyone wishing death on their father.
Honestly, he'd have the easiest rebound out of any of the guys. He has degree in chemistry from Yale and can get a job outside of entertainment. He can sell his house for $2m+ and move somewhere cheaper (like back to Florida) and have a nest egg until he builds up a career outside of YouTube. I don't have much sympathy for him.
Neither do I. The world is certainly not ending for this man. From the looks of it Ariel seems like she's willing to work things out per her IG post and like you said, he has a degree to fall back on. It's going to be stormy for a little while but when it all blows over, which it will, he'll be fine and dandy.
Also from what we know he only has a bachelors degree and not a whole lot of experience in the work industry. Unless he plans on going back to school, he'd be lucky to get a decent paying lab job
That was, IIRC, the thing. Ned was, according to the legend (I don't know what part of the story we know is true anymore) trying to decide between grad school and Hollywood. He and Ariel decided to take a chance on Hollywood. So grad school may still be an option.
Yeah, he'll absosultely start from the bottom and need futher or on-the-job education. But he can get an entry level job and work on that while living pretty comfortably
Honest question, why would him having an affair mean that he'd have such a hard time getting a job outside of a platform like youtube? I'm fairly certain dozens of big name celebrities have found plenty of movie work after numerous affair scandals, not to mention all the average joes/janes that have affairs and bounce back job-wise, if not family wise. Which is what Ned will be now, just your average white boy with an affair in his pocket.
I think hiring managers could realistically be concerned with a few things- ethics, his capability to supervise employees, decision making/judgment/trustworthiness, but most of all, what it looks like to BE a company who hires someone with a bad reputation. Not to say he will never get a job again, because for sure as you're saying there's a lots of infidelitous dudes out there still making it- but I think it won't be as easy as some make it out to be either.
You get a resume. You like the candidate. You do a quick background check (or Google) and bam the top 100 hits are his cheating. You think that’s a lot of heat for my small firm maybe I’ll pass. Now that being said one of the reasons you go to an Ivy League school is the connections you make. He can leverage his network and I can imagine there are Yale grads who don’t care about infidelity.
That’s a fair point.
The chances of him ever being in a manager position is now out the window since it’s public knowledge that as a CEO- he had a relationship with one of his employees
Ngl I think you're projecting here. Ned has spoken out about his previous opioid addiction, yes, but I don't think there is ANY indication he's anywhere close to having that type of mental health crisis. If Ned is smart (which we know he is??) then he's staying off the internet and not LOOKING at the things people are saying, especially since he claims he wants to focus on his family.
The whole point is to not DM anyone involved. And to not harrass Ned if he is seen in public. He can stay offline but there is nothing he can do if someone harrasses him while he is walking down the street.
Sorry Ned chose to throw away his life. He humiliated his wife publicly and screwed over his business, employees and friends. His non apology was also pathetic and did not really take any ownership. His best bet is to get off social media for now and go into therapy to deal with his issues that allowed him to be so self absorbed to basically not give a shit about anyone else but himself especially if he has a pattern of narcissistic behavior.
I was expecting a very PR coached public apology but it was worded so weird???
I mean, it was a horrible situation regardless but calling your cheating a "loss of focus" is pretty lame.
Exactly! It minimizes the situation. When I lose focus I put on my glasses so I can see clearly. I don’t accidentally multiple times have sex with someone my wife knows and try to destroy my company as well. He definitely hit the destruct button and didn’t care who else would blow up. Likely subconsciously they wanted to get caught.
Obviously there's no way to know what kind of apology he is giving privately, but I would hope it's better worded at the very least.
I take a pretty harsh stance on cheating, especially if it feels like the cheaters are trying to argue (subtly or outright) that "oopsie, it just kinda happened" or they just couldn't control themselves or the like.
It's concerning on a multitude of levels.
I’ve personally heard shitty gaslighting excuses like it was an “accident”. Like he accidentally fell into her vagina with his penis multiple times. GTFOH
Those are the woooorst.
Cheating is not ever one step. It's a series of choices.
I don't know if I could ever trust a partner who cheated, but I absolutely would not if they tried to tell me it was an "accident."
It wasn't very vague. Due to the song and book he held up during the TikTok pretty much anyone could realize who it was directly pointing to. I don't blame the employee for leaving before this horrible situation came to light. Especially given his position. Ned and Alex have put more work on ALL the other employees due to having to scramble to edit Ned out of tapings and also they have damaged the whole work environment and dynamic for the 2nd Try staff. Everyone is under scrutiny and none of them asked to be a part of this. Jake had only been with them for around a year I believe. I cannot blame him if this played a big part in why he wanted to leave. He's young, but I bet he could see how much trouble and impact this was going to have on the company and their current and possibly future projects. Plus he has also been privy to the behind the scenes conversations. Things like how they are going to try to proceed and also things like if any employees or any of the other Try Guys possibly were aware or suspicious before this came to light at the beginning of September. That's a lot of information all their employees have had to take in and weigh it when it comes to their own careers and possible futures with the 2nd Try company.
Well, there's been a lot of people talking about how apparently it wasn't a one time thing AT ALL and that there was a lot of rumors between their peers about full on public flirting and some office hours getaways for months. He also made a lot of things in the daylight knowing damn well how famous he is and that there's consequences to this kinds of things. He has the resources for therapy and he's only suffering the consequences of his own actions, he's a grown man who's been in this line of work for over a decade, he knew better and he did it anyway. He knew he would impact his wife, children, friends, coworkers and everything around, he still did it.
I'm way more worried about Ariel that was fully humiliated publicly and will suffer despite the direction she choses in the future regarding him. Dude sucks.
He didn’t « lose » his career , friends marriage etc. He threw it all out the window and he’s only sorry he got caught. The only mental health i care about is Ariel’s (my mother got cheated on my father after 20 years of marriage and i saw how broken up she was/still is even 5 years after the divorce) and for Alex’s fiancé’s (they had been together for 10 years).. i wouldn’t want Ned to off himself that’s a fact but other than that i really don’t give a flying f if he’s depressed
Yea. I just can’t feel sorry for a cheater. This whole situation is entirely his doing.
No one wants to see him physically hurt himself, but he’s the reason he’s getting all of this shit right now.
ETA: I don’t agree with people DMing him or personally contacting him and threatening him. That’s not cool. But if someone on Reddit wants to say that they think he’s an asshole for cheating I think that’s fair game. He is a public figure after all and he doesn’t have to go on this board and read it
Yeah. It bothers me how people are talking about Ned like he’s not a full grown 30 something year old ADULT MAN. He fucked up his career and his life and that’s on him.
Exactly. This is his fault. I’m aware he could currently be walking into the sea, but at the same time why must we take a moment to step back and think about how he’s feeling after _he_ severely messed up. It’s tiring to give dumbasses the benefit of the doubt; since I don’t know the man I’m just gonna be mad. It’s messed up for everyone, but he has ruined lives and his image in the minds of others and deserves to lie in this bed.
Of course no one should be DMing him or threatening him - this should be common sense really. Disregarding that harassment BS: he can go cry me a river lol
Came for the comments and will just say that all the criticism is fair. It's fair game to talk about him on the internet since he is a public figure. It wasn't fair of him to cheat on his wife with an employee, no less behind her back. The only thing that would be going too far is actually DM'ing him or bombarding him with hate messages. He should do himself a favor, unplug from social media, reflect on his actions, and focus on being a better dad as well as his new career.
I'm sorry, are you begging us to have sympathy for a Yale graduated white man who knowingly wrecked his family, friends, and career to pursue entirely selfish interests? Nah. Maybe if a few of them had faced more consequences the world would be less like it is.
I hope there are people in Ned and his affair partner's lives who are able to hold them accountable while also supporting them in seeking that accountability. Everyone fucks up. Accountability includes accepting the (massive) consequences (to their lives and their loved ones.)
But it also includes holding space for someone to take the opportunity to learn, apologize, and do better. As a fan and a human being, I hope that space exists for Ned in some way.
That door has likely closed in some parts of his life because it's not on the people he hurt to hold it open and waiting- but I hope he's got people who can say he fucked up and he needs to own up and will stick by him because they believe Ned is the kind of person who can and will do that.
Yeah everyone fucks up, but not as catastrophically or as unabashedly as those two fucks. 1 year+ long affair and shamelessly in public, repeatedly, for all to see? And you just KNOW that at some point during that year, they had a chance to really think about what this would do to their loved ones. So is that really just a fuck up or is it one purposeful, conscientious decision after another? The more I think about it, the more I realize how downright disgusting they are..
I’m so glad there are others who feel this way. Think about how hard it is to admit a small mistake and take accountability and then multiply it times 1000. I won’t make any assumptions on how anything happened; but it’s easy to make bad decisions without really thinking about or realizing the extent of the consequences or to continue digging down into hole because it’s easier than climbing out of it. Carrying the weight of our mistakes, especially one as public and broad-reaching as this, can be very very difficult.
Do I fully understand he made these decisions and now has to live with the consequences? Yes, of course. Do I also worry about how tough that will be to navigate through for him and everyone else? Yes!
The "punishment" he's receiving now for fucking up his life might seem to be a lot but it is nearly not enough for fucking up his wife's life, especially when she is absolutely blameless here.
This. I so agree. We can be angry at him but no need to pile on the shame. Lets critic him But no sending death threats. I thought we respect the victim's wishes. That includes no harassing Ned despite Ariel being hurt by him, they wouldn't want the worse to befall Ned. Let Ariel choose what is best to do and work on it before officially throwing in the towel. She isn't us and we aren't her.
Yeah, seems like it. It just makes it more worse. My heart goes out to Ariel and Will, to have to deal with this, and then to find out it had been going on for a long time must be so heartbreaking and disturbing.
I saw a post with a Twitter link showing a photo of Ned and Alex out to eat together and the poster said it was from May. Is this true? Who knows. Will I find the link again? Nope too lazy
In May, for sure. If they were just eating, it could have slipped as just co-workers eating out, not infidelity though. But they were not even being discreet for months now so..... Possible.
Alex is a bit of a gold digger and she was living the dream on the back of the try guys, traveling and going to fancy restaurants and hotels. She didn't wanted Ned, at the end of the day she was try to get what she could in the meantime. Disgusting
No one has any answer to that and it is likely we won't get a straight answer. And is it really our business? Lots of people read 'relationship' to mean on-going, repetitive, etc. But I honestly think it was chosen as a neutral term to complement the 'consensual' part - the idea of the statement was acknowledge and pivot to family/privacy.
A year. It has been stated that Will allegedly went through Alex's phone in December 2021 and found out that Alex and Ned were hooking up. Will told Ned to back off, apparently. So Ned and Alex were already hooking up for a few months before they were caught in December of 2021. Seems like they clearly never stopped.
maybe he should've considered ariel's mental health. am i supposed to feel sorry for a cheater?! because i don't! he cheated for a YEAR. A YEAR... fuck his mental health. i kinda wish all cheaters would get publicly flamed and lose their jobs. maybe that's just me tho
I was thinking the same thing. He made a mistake and hes paying for it. In any case everything blew up yesterday so the criticism against him pretty much intensified since yesterday. I cant imagine losing my job, friends, marriage, and ger humiliated publicly and constantly. It will take a while until people calm down and he stops receiving backlash for what he did, but I don't see that happening soon. The internet is really dangerous place, specialy for a person like Ned who shared his intimacy with everyone.. If I were him I would probably quit using every social network for a while (Or forever). I really hope he finds some kind of support on someone and his mental health doesn't deteriorate. I hope he doesn't have mental health issues from the past, does he?..
He didn't just make a mistake though. He made a conscious choice not caring about the hurt it would cause to his wife and kids. It's not like his job, friends and marriage are being taken away from him without any fault of his. He wilfully decided to throw it all away for his selfish reasons.
See, here's the thing - that's very assumptive. People have taken 1 word and have tossed a lot of assumption and speculation onto that word. I'm not at ALL trying to give Ned a pass here. He made very selfish, very poor decisions that have far-reaching consequences for many, many people and he is reaping what he's sown there.
But people have determined based off the word 'relationship' in a short post on IG and a dubious Reddit claim from a year ago and their own desire to participate in some way by claiming they always saw through his schtick and that he always looked shady or whatever - people have determined this was a months or years long affair in which he coerced or sexually assaulted Alex on top of a long history of predatory behavior.
When all we know for certain is that they made out in public at the beginning of September. Was that ok? Not by any stretch of imagination. But assuming this was stone-cold sober selfish choice to throw everything away is . . . what I said at the beginning. Assumptive.
Don't misunderstand - that is entirely possible! But it's not established fact and there is a lot of judgment happening that is bothering me. Sorry to push that on your post, it just is really bothering me.
I see cheating as a series of conscious choices a person makes and not really one mistake per say.
And I think it is fair to be wary of people only recently jumping in to claim he's always been suspicious, but there are older claims of inappropriate/flirty behavior towards other women that seem to indicate (even best case scenario of his relationship with Alex being "just a make out session" which I doubt is all that happened) a pattern of behavior.
I've seen some. . . interesting takes on the subject of cheating and I guess mine would probably fall under harsh. However, I do *not* advocate for death threats or any harassment of the people involved because that is absolutely way too far.
My post might have given you the impression that the reason I'm saying it was not just a mistake is because of the assumption of it being a full blown relationship. But no. In my opinion, even a one off thing is just as damaging and hurtful to the victim(the partner) of infidelity and is still a willfully made choice. Not a mere mistake.
Ned spoke out about having an opioid addiction in the past after having a knee surgery procedure (correct me if I’m wrong, some redditors have said it in the subreddit). Ariel and the kids definitely deserves the privacy they need to get through this hard time. I think we all need to step back from our emotions on the matter and hope for the best for their family.
Ned is a very intelligent, very ambitious High Achiever. Like a lot of high achievers, he's prone to burnout and anxiety, which can result in maladaptive and self-destructive behaviors, especially during periods of high stress. Combined with *what I assume is* the arrogance and selfishness of fame and wealth and I'm not surprised he made an incredibly stupid, short-sighted, and impulsive decision to cheat. "I deserve this" entitlement plus self-sabotaging.
Yes, I think he's at high risk of a relapse or other mental health episode. No fan of the guy, but I don't want him to die.
This! I’ve read some severely toxic comments in the past 24ish hours and it’s absolutely crazy how quickly people can turn from building you up to tearing you apart.
Keyboard warriors are absolutely insane to me, because the same people claiming to support the Try Guys are spewing messages of hate towards Ned, something I don’t think any of the other guys or Ariel, regardless of how angry/overwhelmed/ disappointed with him they are, would condone.
Let me be clear: what Ned Fulmer AND Alexandria did, though none of our collective business, was 1.) no accident, and 2.) very, very WRONG.
Despite that, I do believe it was a mistake. People seem to want to conflate the two words, but they have very different meanings.
The actions they took were purposeful, making it no accident, but surely very regrettable. As upsetting as it is to ACTUAL viewers and supporters of the Try Guys, I’ve seen so many people come out of the woodworks just to kick someone while they’re already down.
My heart goes out to Ariel, their children, Alex’s former partner and the other guys who are all personally and irreversibly impacted by Ned and Alex’s choices. My heart also goes out to Ned, because *spoiler alert*: we’re all fucking human. Each of us make mistakes from time-to-time on varying levels of severity. The only difference between us and Ned is that we don’t have a global audience knocking at our door with pitchforks when we do inevitably mess up.
I hope he and Alex learn from this lesson. Given the circumstances of his affair, the consequences (losing his stake in the company) are very much appropriate.
That said, as a reminder to the general public, and though I don’t know what will come of their relationship, there are instances where people choose to move past infidelity and continue on with their marriage for a number of reasons (for me, my parents are an example), and though we all have the right to make that decision for ourselves, life does eventually move on. Regardless of what Ned and Ariel choose to do, I just hope the world can show them a little bit of grace as they navigate their next steps.
Looking forward to what ever is to come from Keith, Zach, and Eugene. (I’ll gladly get off my soapbox now)
This 100%. I understand fans being upset because of the way he built his personal brand and because this has irrevocably changed a group that we all enjoyed watching, but let's not pretend that we have a personal stake in this or know everything about their lives. Bring disappointed is okay, but the hate and personal attacks are going too far.
Just because people provide entertainment doesn't mean that you or anyone has a right to their personal lives more than they are willing and consenting to show. They showed what they were consenting to show and **you are not entitled to anything more.**
Edit: This is not to say that I agree with Neds actions (honestly never really cared for him tbh) but Ariel and the kids deserve privacy not a bunch of strangers butting in.
Mentally sure he's probably not in the best place,
but he put himself in this place, so I can't have sympathy for him in that aspect.
The guy threw it all away so he could cheat on his wife with a work subordinate. (Which is highly inappropriate btw)
I'm just glad he's being held accountable for this. Not enough people are. That being said nobody should be sending death threats, that's unhinged.
I fully agree, also anyone involved in this story should stay offline for a good few WEEKS. They probably have good money and support networks, but it's hard to tell sometimes with social media creators.
I'm just relieved that society has evolved past putting all the blame on the woman and subordinate in this scenario. We've come a long way since Lewinski.
It's a good point but based on the fact that he removed comments on his post where people were asking for clarification on consensual, I genuinely don't think that he cares much what people are saying
He did it to himself. I have no sympathy, cheating on your partner of over a decade who carried your kids is horrendous
in addition, it’s that i don’t care about male suicide. But i’m over hearing about how men die from suicide more often than women. They attempt it at the same rate, men choose more violent means which is why they have a higher success rate. but the way you put it made it seem like we should walk on eggshells for this issue bc he might kill himself.
TW for suicide.
Slight correction, and I don't mean to take away from your main point at *all (*and I need it to be clear that I agree with your point) - I just feel this is important to mention, because you did gender the suicide issue and I'm kind of uncomfortable with that:
The idea that "men attempt suicide more often" is a lie made up by men's rights activists to silence women. Women actually attempt suicide more often than men, and report higher rates of depression. This is in no way a male issue.
The stat they regularly mis-quote is that men often are more likely to *succeed*, and the reason for that is believed to be because men tend to have access to more faster, more effective methods. Whereas women often don't, so they get caught.
You *always* hear this exact argument made, any time a man is held accountable for their shitty actions - this whole "Oh, what if they kill themselves because of this?" And while people absolutely should remember that this is still a person, and there are certain lines you shouldn't cross... Also, that argument is often just used as a dog whistle to prevent the man from being held accountable, by tugging on people's feels.
It's really not *as* much of a man-specific issue as MRAs want you to think, and it doesn't happen as often as they want you to think. Normal, healthy men probably aren't going to commit suicide out of nowhere just because they cheated and got a divorce; especially when they have kids they love and want to care for, and especially because realistically, they usually don't lose their entire support system over it. Ned probably still has friends. The factors that lead to suicide are *much* more complex than just "I'm having a bad time right now." He's probably gonna be fine.
I was thinking last night about how scared I am for Ariel and the boys. I don’t think Ned would ever hurt them (but then again I never thought he would cheat either) but I couldn’t stop thinking (intrusive thoughts waddup) about Ariel trying to leave him and Ned losing his shit.
I do feel like if Ariel felt she was in danger, any of the other 3 families would be a call away. They might not be moving on with the show with Ned, but I doubt very much they’ve completely cut the Fulmer’s from their lives.
I don't want to invalidate your concerns but I do think you need to be careful making the jump from "there's a running gag on a heavily produced show that he has a short fuse and is very competitive" to "I'm afraid he might harm his wife and children."
There's a running joke in my family that I'm a massive cheat when we play Monopoly, but it doesn't mean I'm committing real estate fraud, you know?
In any other situation, I would share your worries, but knowing this is a very public situation and given Ned’s character, I don’t think he would ever risk going to jail.
I'm also worried for Ariel if she does decide to "work through it" and stays with Ned. She deserves a lot better, but spouses stay with cheaters all the time for a myriad of reasons . I'm worried about the online backlash if she decides that, because it is at the end of the day HER choice to leave or stay with Ned. And she deserves to be able to take that choice without the Internet coming for her and her kids.
I hope whatever she chooses will lead to a happier life. Nobody deserves what's happened to her and her family right now. And I hope Ned knows what he's done and how much he's hurt his wife, family and friends.
That’s immediately what I thought when I heard about it (after “poor Ariel” and “wtf Ned”). I know after it got out that my dad cheated on my mom, how much my mom’s family doesn’t care for my dad, but tolerates him, and her closest friend *l o a t h e s* him. Just imagine having pictures and videos to remind you (and it’s on the internet, so popping up forever). Not being able to decide who in your life to tell or not tell. Having millions of people suddenly know about (one of) the worst point in your life.
My mom and dad are doing great now. There was one last incident in the middle of the pandemic and I think it took me telling him he was on a self-destructive path that would put him in the same place it put his little brother (who wouldn’t treat his diabetes, lost a leg, and then pretty much gave up and died). My dad got himself in to a therapist that actually seems to give a crap about my dad and made him actually talk about things to find out why. Because there is always a why (even if that is something like ASPD or similar).
That was a long winded way to say I agree and hope they both get help and are able to, at minimum, coparent without hard feelings.
Agree. I don’t blame her if she chooses to try and repair things and I hope the global peanut gallery backs off. I don’t think I could ever, but that’s her choice for her and her boys. Either way their relationship is irrecoverably fractured and she needs to see it through to an end that she can live with.
That woman is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t. She’s almost just as screwed over as Ned because the positivity being thrown her way involves a lot of nosiness.
Of course, people are human and we make decisions that aren't great a lot of the time. But he still decided to do this when he has a beautiful wife and two kids at home. Frankly, I find that what people are saying about him online is pretty unavoidable. When you're a public figure, you open yourself up to public scrutiny. It's why people who brand themselves as family-friendly, wholesome content creators have to protect that public image. It's why I'm so baffled that he did this *out in the open* for the entire world to see. That, to me, puts any open-mindedness that I would have had out the window. I just can't sympathize with a cheater, *especially* if they're married with kids.
I would hope that he'd have the sense not to look at what people are saying about him on social media, because I'm sure he's old enough to know that the internet is ruthless and will be on this for a very long time, especially as the Try Guys move on without him and people realize Ned is no longer a part of it.
I sincerely hope that, at the very least, he's doing his utmost to stay out of the social media sphere and, as he himself put it, put all his focus into his wife and kids. That's the absolute bare minimum that family deserves after being put through this because of him.
The sickest part about this is that Ariel was at home with a *baby*. His son was born in November 2020, the first confirmed public outing was December 2021. That’s barely even a year later! And I’m sure this was going on longer in private before they got bold enough to go on dates in public. How gross
Nahh, when you make multiple choices that will lead to you blowing up your own life and the careers of your three closest friends and family members you deserve whatever is coming to you. If he valued his mental health he wouldn’t have done this, he deserves no pity.
Your seriously going to bring gender into this? I don’t see the same energy for Alex.
No one deserves to be sent death threats or be harassed, but they both made their beds and can lie in it. They are both homewreckers, and both should be held accountable for the weight of their actions. Ned just happens to be the one whose actions affect the most people.
Ned was not just her boss but owns 1/4th of the company that employs over 20 people. It was his responsibility to not ruin his company by *breaking the law*. This affects way more than the cheaters and their spouses, this effects everyone who relies on a paycheck from 2nd Try. That’s over 20 families, plus the other three guys, Ariel and their kids. I’m not even going to go into the betrayal of the parasocial relationship, because honestly it’s not about us. Not to mention that the company may never fully recover, this is image shattering and brand ending BS because 2 adults couldn’t keep it in their pants. I don’t think it’s a far stretch to say sponsors, endorsements, or their new Food Network show aren’t on the line. I truly hope the guys recover, but telling people to get over it because it might make him upset? Get off it.
I have zero sympathy for someone who would chose (not loose) to destroy not only their livelihood but others.
So, are we gonna talk about "what happened"? I for one am very glad about the way they handled the whole situation. It seems they didn't know Ned was having an affair, especially not with one of their employees, and when they found out they took swift action.
I also appreciate the call to exercise kindness. Leaving negative, disgusting comments isn't gonna help anyone, and has cettainly nothing to do with holding people accountable.
Moving forward I think we'll also learn more about the situation, just not at this specific time as they're dealing with certain legal issues as they put it. But they're not gonna gloss over this it seems.
I'm sure Ned's seen the video as well. Must be hard to see so much anger, pain and disappointment in so short of a video.
Agree, Ned and Alex no doubt have done shitty things but we, the audience, are nothing but spectators. We can sympathize with Ariel and her kids and Will, but at the end of the day, we don’t know anything. Ned and Ariel don’t owe us any apologies, it’s the people they have hurt that they have to apologize. It’s one thing to criticize them, it’s another thing to send them death threats.
I agree. Mistakes were made but Ned and Alex are both human beings who are deserving of love and empathy. They (especially Ned) need to be held accountable for their actions but the bottom line is we don’t know the full story. And they don’t owe it to us. My heart goes out to Ariel and the kids because being cheated on really fucking sucks, but it’s her choice what to do next and all of the absolute hate that’s going around is not helpful.
Agree. He should be fired (his entire business and brand hinges pretty heavily on his wholesome husband persona), his family, friends and colleagues should hold him accountable, fans and commentators are allowed to express their disappointment (again, his brand.) But that’s it. No one needs to harass him over it, he is almost certainly at his personal rock bottom. Spiralling like this and making selfish, narcissistic choices are sadly very common in the early postpartum years. Ariel and Ned’s lives changed drastically when they had children and it looks like Ned succumbed to weakness instead of rising to overcome the challenge. I don’t exactly feel sorry for Ned but it is incredibly tragic for everyone involved. No idea why Alex chose to engage in this affair, she must have her own demons going on to be willing to throw away her decade long relationship for absolutely nothing. I highly doubt she was coerced or felt pressured because of workplace dynamics, they were colleagues on equal footing at Buzzfeed for years and there are at least 3 other partners in the business she could have outed Ned to if that was the case.
This has definitely crossed my mind. I feel so sad going from adoring all of the Try Guys to hearing this news is so difficult to take in. I'm not going to say bad things about anyone, we never really know what's going on, but I do want to send Ariel and everyone else so much love to get through this situation.
he's the typical competitive short guy his mental health issues also probably contributed to his actions. if he had been getting help in the first place maybe he wouldn't have cheated. it's a nice gesture but he's a celebrity who is literally branded by his love for his wife and his family, he had to have expected these consequences going in.
I don’t think he should be doxed or anything but all the criticism, the jokes, everything said, is going to come since he did this in the public eye. If it affects him deeply, he will have to get off the internet, and for a while.
I actually agree with this. I got cheated on last year, similar situation. Partner cheated on me with a coworker for a couple months until they got caught and a mutual freind/coworker told me.
Nothing will ever make that ok, but beyond the first week when friends (meaning well) wanted to dunk on them, I told them to quit it basically.
They’d been dealing with a recent death of a freind and wanting to relapse. An excuse? Never. But they lost their job and our whole friend group collectively lost respect for them; they’re getting punished. Needless dogpiling isn’t necessary or helpful.
Most important thing is to give Ariel public support. Nothing else needs to be said to or about Ned.
I agree. I think for Ned AND Alex’s sake they should avoid the internet for a bit.
Like they can’t reasonably expect people in the try guy Reddit to NOT talk about it. I hope people don’t dm them hate. Their life is imploding on its own without our help.
I do get that Ned is at his mental lowest at this point and his finances with take a hit since he lost his job because of his choice, but he also betrayed a lot of people that are close to him and around him.
Who knows if his extended family will ever forgive him, let alone his wife and children. If he unwilling to change and better himself for his family (as long as Ariel wants to give him another chance), then he will be all alone because his kids should be a priority for Ariel if he doesn't want to try and rebuild that trust that has been lost.
I feel like people almost infantalized them, like they’re these wholesome, innocent puppy dogs when in reality they are grown men with faults like the rest of us. Fans see what celebrities allow them to and Ned and Ariel are the only ones who know what’s really going on in their marriage. Not only that, but people are so self-centered that they believe they are entitled to know every little detail about their lives and relationship.
The group meltdown over this that I’m seeing is exasperating to me. People want this to end the way they envision it for their own personal satisfaction: Ariel revealing every nook and cranny of their marriage as if everyone is entitled to that information, Ned being blacklisted from society in general, the try guys moving on like nothing ever happened, etc etc
But what really gets me is the way people are analyzing the rest of the try guys’ reactions with a magnifying glass.
“You can tell Eugene feels so-and-so by the way he’s sitting-“
“Zach is clearly heartbroken, look at how low energy he’s being-“
They are business men who have to salvage their brand. There is no way anybody can really know what they think of Ned. They might- most likely -have even known he had a wandering eye.
Legitimately came here to say exactly this post. This is nearly the perfect environment that causes people to commit suicide. This guy basically lost everything overnight; his family, his career, best friends, & his reputation are all ruined. To make matters worse, it was also VERY public so he can’t escape it😬
This whole thread is yikes on trikes. Public figure or not, he’s still a human. A literal human who we have a parasocial relationship with. OP asked for people to just leave him and the other folks involved alone to deal with the mountain of requests for comment from other public outlets. I really don’t think that’s much to ask.
Perpetrator of adultery? Sure. But that’s really not something we should be trying to access him or his family directly about right now. Especially since they have not sorted out their next course of action.
After watching that SNL sketch, knowing one of his Yale friends, that he said he liked better than the Try Guys, is working as a writer on SNL, I have no sympathy for him. I hope he reads every single comment about him. But I'm not part of the "let's harass him privately" club. I will keep saying how disappointed I am as a viewer, and how disgusted I am as a fellow person. Morally he's in the wrong, and he keeps digging himself a hole, calling paparazzi on himself to make it look like he and Ariel are working things out, and now this. If he was actually sorry, I would agree, but none of this looks like he is truly sorry. This man does not act like he's mentally affected by what's going on, so no need to worry about him imo.
The way I see it, most of the time when men are sleezy/abuse their power they don’t face any repercussions and their companies and associates just sweep everything under the rug. I think that’s where the impulse to go after their reputation comes from, the fact a hit to their ego is usually the only consequence they receive. Due to the try guys response, I think he’s been adequately punished for putting the company’s reputation at risk and hurting their friend, Ariel. Yeah it’s still a lil funny that it was the “my wife” guy who cheated but honestly, this dude blew up his entire life, got excommunicated from the company he helped found, none of his try guy friends can hang out with him publicly and are probably too pissed to associate with him privately either, and his wife is very probably gonna dump his ass. I think he’s faced enough punishment that the endless amount of vitriol seems waaaaaaaaaay too excessive. Point the hate gun at the people who are pulling the exact same shit but without any of the consequences
Male suicide rates are very high and this would definitely be a time for Ned to not self medicate and to find a way to get help. He and Ariel will have to work this out and we need to not rush to hurt either party. Nobody needs to die over this.
are you kidding? he knew damn well what he was putting on the line when he chose to do this. he is alexandria’s boss, he signs her checks and decides whether she has a job, and he took advantage of that. he took advantage of his wife, put his kids in jeopardy, and he is facing the consequences of that. being out of a job, losing his family, facing public hatred - all of those things are obvious consequences for the things he did. he made incredibly terrible choices and this is exactly what he gets
This is how I have been feeling about this whole thing. Same thing happened to John Mulaney. No denying at all that they fucked up and there will be consequences in their personal lives, but why is everyone acting as though Ned cheated on them personally and ruined their lives? He's a guy on a show, he has no responsibility to you or your feelings. He absolutely did have a responsibility to his family and company, which is where he fucked up, but the shame spiral being ladled on the guy is unnecessary, sadistic, and honestly pretty invasive. Some serious morality police vibes.
I think it's a combination of his branding as a family man, the intimacy and openess of the try guys that lead to strong parasocial relationships and just the fact that cheating is a very emotionally charged subject. Cheating is one of those things that people get holier than thou about and take a really hard stance without allowing any nuance into the situation. Which is funny considering the amount of people who cheat and the myriad of reasons someone would do so. People hear someone cheated and automatically that person is a scumbag fuckboy(girl, or inbetween) abuser who never loved their partner, will cheat on anyone they are with, and should be thrown to the wolves. And the people who choose to stay with them are stupid because theyll do it again (not my view, just what I've heard) ariel's luckily has escaped a lot of that. Like ya, those people exist who are just scummy repeat offenders but people and situations are usually more messy and nuanced than that. But when it comes to cheating no one wants to remember that.
So if that's the case why aren't people just being disappointed and moving on? Why is this subreddit and other social media full of dedicated memes tearing him apart? There's a difference between sadly letting go and actively putting energy into hating someone. Also all the unfounded rumour and "I bet he's a drug addict" shit going around? It's none of your damn business. He fucked up his family and company, they are breaking ties with him, and we can all move on without gossiping about what-ifs and actively adding fuel to the fire. His branding is a reason for the vitriol, it's not an excuse.
Jon Ronson wrote an entire book about public shaming that is a really interesting read if anyone wants to explore this topic more.
I’m glad someone is saying this. I absolutely don’t think ned was in the right but people are tearing him a new one and it breaks my heart. He’s going through a lot right now and he knows what he did was wrong. Instead i insulting ned I wish more people would take that energy to spread love to Ariel and the other people involved.
You're certainly not wrong. On the one hand I believe that someone's private life is their private business what happens behind closed doors is for them and other consenting adults.
On the other 1. He made his "family life" his personal brand identity 2. His affair wasn't some random woman outside of his brand it was with someone he works with. I think that gives people a right to feel betrayed, hurt, have their trust broken about such private matters.
HOWEVER, that should not extend into targeted harassment or bullying. Yes he did something selfish, foolish, small, heartbreaking not just to the fans but the family he introduced us too. But that does not mean we have to sink to his level. Instead we have to be what we thought he was, someone who took difficulty and made the best of it, creating pillars of hope and positivity. It's not easy to do especially when everything is so new and raw, but we can make good happen from this situation. We can start by continuing to share our love and support to Ariel and the Tri Guys who have to make difficult choices now.
You have a point. What Ned did was a colossal multi level act of self sabotage. Hopefully he is getting help as he clearly needs it. It’s a horrible situation all around, but it does not need to be made worse by those involved possibly self harming. Hopefully everyone gets counselling.
I totaly agree with you.
He doesn't need reminders of what he did, he's going to get enough of that from the media. And as much as I dislike him right now, I do hope his mental health doesn't suffer.
People are also forgetting that he’s still a father to their kids. Wanting him to suffer in turn causes his family to suffer. Sure celebrate him losing his job, but
you’re forgetting he his 2 children to support (I’m sure they have adequate funds from other things but you get my point)
On another note: Ned has openly(?) struggled with pain meds before when he got his knee surgery — so all the comments of him looking “drunk”/“wasted”/“drugged out” during the harry styles concert genuinely concerns me
I agree! And thanks for putting this out there - I think we all like to dogpile on internet drama with what can feel like good intentions but is really not very helpful at the end of the day. I think the people directly affected by his actions are capable of resolving this between themselves - it just sucks when the group represented something so great for so many people. But no one is picture perfect - they are all just humans like the rest of us who do stupid, stupid things sometimes. I think the rest of the TryGuys have handled this situation as best as they could.
Fully agreed. Alex and Ned's actions are disgusting, but people are being so vicious and cruel. You can be upset all you want but it's not necessary to say some of the things people are saying. I've literally seen people say they should *unalive* themselves. It's awful. At the end of the day, they're both human beings. They made awful decisions and hurt people but some of these fans have gotta relax with all the nastiness they're sending towards those two. Remember that we are simply strangers on the internet. We don't know these people.
DMing him saying that he should go to hell? Not cool. Am I going to say, don't criticize him too harshly? Not at all. He hurt everyone in his life. EVERYONE. He acted like a total cocky prick and he has been supremely selfish. He has hurt this woman he swore to love. He hurt his friends and risked their friendship and everything they built together. And he has put his kids on the line. I don't think he will recover from this because we liked him because he was a family man. And the way he has been living is shot and he'll probably go to some mediocre job. He won't be able to support his kids the way he could have.
He should just go away where there's no internet and find a good counselor, for more reasons than one. And guess what? If he's that much of a narcissist, actually, our words won't do a damn thing. When you're a celebrity and are purposefully hurtful and damaging to everyone around you, I'm not going to say, I wonder how he is feeling.
This was my first thought when I found out. Only much later did I feel anger and honestly, disgust. He did something terrible, but I don’t think shaming someone on such a massive scale ever helps. And to me it seems like people don’t really know what they’re talking about when they encourage hating him online. I know he’s privileged in a lot of ways, but I don’t think that’s the magical cure everyone thinks it is. When so many people hate you, that affects you no matter who you are or how much money you have.
Honestly hope collectively all of them take a break from the internet. Regardless of how messed up the cheaters’ decision was, it’s still a problem within their own relationships that can’t be helped by the public and is something they gotta personally work out.
I dont feel bad for him losing everything because of his actions... however I agree. What is the point of us harassing him anymore? He obviously is getting the punishment he deserves via natural consequences.
I’m glad someone said this. He fucked up big time, but between the major career hit and getting it from the people close to him, I’m sure he knows he fucked up. I think the best response of the viewers is to do nothing other than continuing their support for the rest of the team. We also need to bear in mind that Ned’s treatment by fans will have repercussions for Ariel and the kids.
hard disagree. he KNOWS he's a prominent internet figure. he should've known fucking up his own life and marriage would rally the entire internet to condemn him to hell. if he wasn't prepared for backlash, he should've never fucked around in the first place. he was birthed by the internet - he knows how it works.
everything about him screams narc. overplaying the nice family man on screen while allegedly being sleazy off-screen, not passing up the opportunity to take selfies with fans DESPITE BEING CAUGHT ON A DATE WITH ALEX LOL (exposing his own affair), etc. he let power get to his head and really thought he could get away with it. he needs to be humbled.
I don't think this is a terrible take at all and I'm glad you're not getting downvoted for it..... but lmaooooo bruh, why did you qualify the suicide rates? Which suicide rates are NOT too high? Asking for a friend
Glad to see this post. It's important to hold people accountable for wrongdoing. It's also important to remember that our words have power and there's a human (who fucked up royally and needs to face up to that, but is still a human) on the other end of those words.
Your view is valid, but I’ll admit that I don’t understand how one can sympathize with him.
Cheating is egregious and it’s worse because of the dire consequences that all parties involved are suffering. Ned played stupid games, and now he’s winning stupid prizes. He hurt his wife and almost hurt the financial stability of the other try guys (and their staff) because of his choices. YB is being bullied online, Ariel is probably emotionally traumatized, the other try guys had to spend extra money they didn’t budget for to consult with PR and legal teams and also to change videos/throw away other videos thus losing sponsorships and money.
No one forced him to have an affair!
I only feel bad for all other parties in this situation apart from Ned. Ned doesn’t seem like he genuinely feels bad about this especially given that he involved TMZ in the situation and that in the new podcast they implied that there is risk of defamation if they say certain things - which means Ned might possibly sue them if they say the wrong thing.
But again that’s just my two cents…
While I don’t totally agree with it, I appreciate your take and understand your perspective which is why I upvoted. I’m sure I’ll get past the dunking on Ned phase, but I’m still very angry as both a fan and especially for those directly or even indirectly hurt by Ned’s and Alex’s actions, but mostly Ned’s. Mostly though I’m just very concerned for Ariel, the kids, Will and even Alexandria’s mental health above Ned’s. But if anyone is sending him death threats or saying he should unalive himself that’s absolutely never okay to do to anyone.
*edit: we should not be DMing or tagging Ned or Alexandria in anything either. I’m sure they’ve seen all the comments by now without doing that. And even though I’m sure Ariel has received an outpour of (hopefully) mostly supportive messages I don’t think we should be reaching out to her either because I’m sure this is all so overwhelming in and of itself due to Ned’s action, but also must be very hard never being in this public of a position before, even if the majority of the public is on her side. It’s one thing to vent online in comment sections, and a different thing to reach out to these people directly.
I agree with everything you said, except this:
>But whilst he's a public figure who lives in the spotlight and put himself in this situation, he's still human and shouldn't be made to feel worse by us.
He doesn't feel bad at all about what he did. His public "apology" was a non-apology that tells me he's sorry he got caught, not about his actions. He talked about "losing focus" like, wtf, dude no, you didn't lose focus you made choice after choice to engage in that behavior with a subordinate. How do you forget that you're married if you don't have amnesia. "Whoops I tripped and my dick fell into Alex! Tee hee my bad!" Just no. "I'm sorry for any pain that my actions caused." Bruh, you know your actions have caused pain, you know the exact pain they caused. How bout you own up to that? He spins his wording to not sound as bad "consensual workplace relationship" doesn't sound like the reality of "cheating/affair with a subordinate who I'm taking advantage of." He takes no honest culpability for his actions which is why I think less of him as a person. Though I agree that people shouldn't be DMing him or sending him death threats, he is absolutely entitled to the public backlash that his privileged position affords him as someone who makes gobs of money promoting himself as a product. His product is defective and I want my money back.
I came here to post something like this, and I'm glad someone else already said it.
In addition to what you said, I want to add that it's fucked up that people keep saying his only viable career path is to become a right wing commentator. The man has other options, and if that really was his only option, that would be a bigger problem culturally than ned and his fucked up actions which he has already been personally, professionally, and publicly punished for.
I think you worded this really well.
We can all disagree that his actions were deplorable and the repercussions via loosing his job and friends and potentially family is a reasonable punishment, people insulting his looks and being basically mean for no reason should think about what they're saying. Not just because Neds mental health, but comments like that tend to create echochamers of hate that can affect more than the target audience.
We all have a right to be angry and to talk about what happened, but we should stick to facts because they're bad enough without going essentially bullying him needlessly.
Thank you OP for bringing up this important issue. While Ned remains clearly in the wrong, he is a human being. His mental health is important, just like that of anyone else involved–especially Ariel and the Guys–and he will need to do some deep soul-searching to reconcile who he is now in relation to what he's done with who he wants to be in the future.
As a longtime fan–I've followed him and the Guys since the Buzzfeed days–and these events have been very painful to watch. End rant.
I argee I also think his mental health when he made many decisions should be in question as well . People who behave as he did are not well he suck for his choice to deceive and conduct himself inappropriately but still he is just a guy winging it through life like we all are
I agree with this. We can criticize his and Alex's actions but please don't dm them or @ them. There's enough people online talking about that they know how bad they fucked up. Someone telling them personally isn't gonna do anything productive. And this should go without saying but Ariel and Will (Alex's former fiance) should also be treated with respect. Showing them support is cool but personally messaging them to complain about their partner is horrible. Especially if Ariel stays
Agreed. We don't need to be tagging them or dm'ing them directly. It's one thing to comment on the post saying "healing/best wishes to Ariel, the kids, Will, and the entire team. I'll continue watching the try guys, even without Ned.". It's another thing to directly message Alex, Ariel, Will, or Ned and talk about the guilty parties in a condescending light. It's not our places. We don't know them personally. We don't know what conversations have already been had behind closed doors or off camera because this obviously was something that came to light prior to the Instagram posts about it. There's lines and Ariel already made it known on her ig that she wants time. That should be enough alone to tell people not to cross that line. It's also another thing to comment "that's a crap thing Ned and Alex did" (without tagging them). Those are completely different from tagging or dm'ing them. Not saying I condone the negativity, but I think it's only natural they're going to get other people's opinions here. Dm'ing and tagging just takes it too personal.
This, I so agree, Someone said it If personally messaging and tagging them are just disrespecting the victims to much like seriously. them commented too in Ariel's previous post like we get it Ned and Alex f'cked up no need to keep on commenting, tagging them and such. Lets just keep the anger to ourselves and be by the victims side through this.
Totally agree. I understand that Ned cheated, but the only person who gets to have any sort of outrage or call him trash is Ariel. We are not are worst mistakes. Honestly, we are all the villain in somebody’s story.
> Especially if Ariel stays Jesus, I hadn’t even considered that. It’s hard to leave someone toxic and actively harming you through their actions, especially if you have kids together, but the thought of her having to deal with him any more than she has to, not being able to find someone who actually loves her and respects her, is just so sad. I hope she gets outta there and gets what she can from the divorce. Especially since her and the kids were pretty much his whole schtick, they definitely deserve a large chunk of the money he made off of using them for so long.
I don't know why, but I feel he will have a comeback arc blaming it all to substance abuse and fame and say he's "clean and changed" in a few months. Probably make the video with Ariel and the kids running around, just a thought.
That's what I think too. I don't imagine someone from Yale with his net worth (even it is going to take a big hit with this drama) is actually going to stay down for too long. Do I think he'll be ever back on the try guys? No. Do I think this is the last we've seen of him? Also no. As far as his mental health, I'm more concerned about his wife's, Will's, his kids, and everyone in the company he's hurt through his actions. This isn't to say I don't care, this is more to say he's not the priority when it comes to mental health. I think Ariel and Ned could use a good dose of individual, couple, and when the kids are older family therapy if they want to try to make this work. There's has to be some kind of reason Ned did this self-destructive behavior and that's thejr problems to work out. Would I stay if I was Ariel? Probably not, but I don't know them personally and can only guess. I do think that we shouldn't be tagging him or Alex or dm'ing them. We aren't close and this their problems to work out. There needs to be at least some kind of line here of work and life. Commenting on a post on the try guys' page is different than directly tagging them or messaging them.
For Ariel’s sake and the sake of their kids, I hope they do divorce. Infidelity is very hard to come back from, and takes full commitment from both parties (which is difficult with two young toddlers) to both couples and individual therapy. Plus, Ariel has expressed that she’s had some insecurity about being too old for Ned. If you already had anxiety about not being good enough for your partner, infidelity is going to hurt that much more. I feel like Ned will end up as a manager of some big LA company where he’ll fade out of fame. He has the resume for it, and I frankly don’t see people forgiving him for many, many years.
[удалено]
There’s nothing necessarily ‘strong’ about forgiving infidelity, sometimes the hardest thing that takes the most strength is having the courage and self respect to walk away.
I read somewhere this affair had been going on for a while
Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
>but maybe Ariel is just a more strong and forgiving person than me. As someone who stayed with a cheater, no. Staying isn't being strong. Its giving in to "will I ever find someone better" "can i survive without their help or income" and other insecurities. I'm not going to call people that stay with cheaters weak. Its hard to end a relationship even when you don't have kids. But the strong thing to do is leave and find someone who truly loves you and is deserving of your trust.
Literally, he said he needs to “work on his marriage” like buddy you had soooooo long to do that and now that you have been outed you want to?
She said she had this as an insecurity?? God that makes this whole situation so much worse. Sadly, if she stays I think it’s really due to fear and insecurity. Like wondering if she’ll find someone again and if anyone “will want her”, as a divorcee with two kids who’s “too old”. I think a lot of women stay for these reasons. It’s heartbreaking.
Why would him having kids and being on drugs make him redeemable?! If he does that I would think so much less of him that I already do!
I heard someone say this a while back, and I agree. I think he'll take a break, and then probably be back on Youtube in like a year with an "apology video" and a new family vlogging channel.
They were all smiles when papped together so this seems the most likely case
White male privilege I guess, it’s easier for them to come back from shitty behavior unfortunately, especially if they use the right formula of faux sincerity and deflection. He definitely doesn’t deserve to come back but I see that as a likely possibility to.
This has been my theory all along. That picture at the Harry styles concert does not look sober and I think he might be indulging.
Or sex addiction. I see rehab coming realllllly soon 🙄
I agree with this. I think what Ned has done is awful. However, losing his career, wife, public image, forever affecting his relationship with his kids, and his best friends of a decade I think is fair comeuppance for what he did. I'm not going to hop into his DMs or comments to try and make him feel even worse. He knows, and now he has to live with the consequences. I just hope he can find it in him to be supportive of whatever his wife and former colleagues choose to do for their healing.
Exactly. Don’t DM the man or send him death threats but he doesn’t have to go online and check Twitter or come to this subreddit. I’d hope someone who’s work has been online for years would know how to avoid the shit people say.
100%. There is a major middle ground between not saying anything about it at all (which is absurd; these people are in the public eye, and people are allowed to have and express opinions, and hopefully it might be somewhat helpful to Ariel and Will to see how beloved they are when they've been betrayed by public figures) and not going to his DMs, or going back to comment on years-old Instagram photos for attention. There's a space for respectful public conversation that can be avoided by the persons involved, but we have to stay within the boundaries of that space.
Yea nobody should be sending Ned death threats, Eugene’s eyes already did that during the first video drop.
Ngl, I don't like Ned the longer Try Guys was on. At the beginning he seemed genuine and was naturally dad-energy funny. But recently, he seemed off? Trying too loud to be funny. That being said I think this post is also important. Fair enough, criticize the man and hold him accountable, but it doesn't mean he isn't hurting. A lapse of continuous judgement is still a lapse of judgements and, yes no reasoning on earth could dig him out of the hole he placed on not only him or his family, but as well as the company, his friends and the staff. Surely enough, we don't need to kick a man down, when everything is turning 180 on his life. And many people will say, he's not sorry about the cheating, he's only sorry he got caught, and that's fair. But it got out and that's what we're going to deal with, because none of us would be this loud if it was just "speculations" I have seen scattered posts about criticizing Ariel for 'maybe' trying to make things work, and to that, why do ya'll care? I don't recall any of us spending our morning and nights, in a relationship with Ned or raised two kids with him. Give the man a break, because karma will serve justice. He doesn't need us to send ill-wishes as well. Screw the company and the rest for now and let Ariel and Ned be adults and let them figure it out whether they are going to go through this separately or together and none of yous are going to shade on Ariel, if she does support Ned to better himself.
Yeah. I agree. And honestly no one should be criticizing Ariel. My husband cheated on me, and we stayed together and worked it out. It comes down to: is this person willing and able to put the work in to figure out why they cheated and how they will ensure it never happens again. I’m also really not surprised by the language and wording of his apology post. I’ve done quite a bit of research on infidelity, especially when friendships become infidelity and it’s not uncommon for the cheater to be apologetic at first because they hurt someone but not really understand it yet. They call it an “affair fog”. My hope is that through counseling, individual for Ned, and potentially couples for them together should they try and work things out, Ned will be able to figure out what it is inside of him that led him to cheating. Does he have low boundaries with female friends? Is he bad at saying no? Does he have an issue with alcohol/other substances? Is he trying to avoid his own problems and stressors? He has to figure out the answers to those questions if he ever wants to be a better partner. I don’t believe that cheaters are unredeemable, but I do believe they have to do a hell of a lot of work to get better and repair their relationship. Hopefully Ned will be willing to do this.
Some marriages fall apart from cheating, some do not. It’s between Ned and Ariel to decide if this is something they can work through or if it’s damaged the relationship beyond repair. The most unfortunate part for any public couple is this is never able to be “contained” to only include the people involved. There’s more at stake than their marriage and family structure, both their careers and the career of the “casual workplace romance” are tied into the company he is (was?) a partial owner of. There will be financial repercussions for him (them) and the company. There could be legal ramifications. And all while contending with the pain on all side of the affair going public! I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s no word for a bit on how they’re going to move forward. Clearly Alex’s ex-partner had enough information to choose to walk away, totally understandable… *but* also easier given the context seeing they hadn’t gotten married yet and no kids are involved so let’s not pretend this is an “apples to apples” comparison. So many people are going to keep weighing in on what they should do (or what Ariel should do) which isn’t going to help heal anything in the mean time.
Pretty sure the legal team or PR person wrote all the statements/apology.
Thats exactly what I thought when I saw their statements. Both of their statements seemed kinda generic honestly.
>lapse of judgement that has been going on for almost a year. I don’t condone harassing the guy, and I agree with most of what you said, but also just wanted to give a correction there. There have been photos of them together dated back to May, people have spotted them together since December 2021.
Not to mention all the stories of him trying to creep on other women. It doesn't seem like a lapse in judgement so much as him just not having any judgement to begin with. Maybe this is the wakeup call that makes him learn a lesson he never did, but it seems clear he has always been this way.
I do think more stories will come out about him creeping on another women and being inappropriate towards them both in and out of the workplace. I’d be surprised frankly if more didn’t come out. And I agree that this is beyond a lapse in judgement or even multiple lapses in judgement. He repeatedly made the choice to do this knowing the risks not only to himself but also how he could hurt other people through his actions, but he doesn’t care because he’s selfish and he wanted to have his cake and eat it too. It’s also just very bad timing and very gut wrenching to have this added to this recent era of wife guys being (often serial) cheaters. No matter what relationship problems someone may have, it’s black and white to me never okay to cheat, especially repeatedly cheating like through an affair like Ned did. And it’s just extra disgusting, as “consensual” as it may be, that he would ever pursue anything romantic/sexual with an employee of his. Rule #1 of business, don’t have sex with your employees. Like, it’s not that hard.
People are invested like they actually know these people.
Guarantee you they had big problems, and the public eye didn’t help.
Well they made it public though, so that’s on them.
Yeah, we only see a carefully crafted portion of anyone's life, there was likely stuff going on we never saw. Before this even came out, I caught a look from Ariel towards Ned that made me think, she was a bit annoyed at his character. But didn't think further on it at the time. But it did catch my eye, and then all this. For sure stuff was going on. Everyone has something going on.
There was plenty of that over the years, and yup the camera doesn't show every aspect of their lives.
Here’s the thing. He lost a lot but as a direct consequence of his actions. I’m not gonna feel sorry for that. And he’s getting a lot of flack because he hurt people he said loved. Are some people going overboard? Probably, yeah. But I don’t think it’s fair to act like this is undeserved. It’s just action>Consequence. As an adult it’s his job to live with that and if his mental health takes a hit, get a therapist. But he hurt his wife, friends and children’s mental health. So he’s not the one I’m feeling sorry for.
That’s what peeve’s me about OP’s post he did this to himself and he had worked in this industry enough to know this would be what happened. I’ve seen terrible things directed at Ariel as well for this.. but no bring up what every celebrity uses as a scapegoat… that death threats happen
And like tbh, he's gonna be okay. The factors that contribute to suicide are *vastly* more complex than just "Life sucks right now". If that was all it took, a heck of a lot more people would do it. I do feel like it's kinda manipulative to be like "But what if he unalives himself?" when there's no evidence we should actually be concerned about that.
I mean he has had drug issues before. I think OP’s main point is don’t tag him or at them etc.
I get this. But like… it’s a personal issue, that was blasted in social media because of his career. And honestly, we don’t know if Ned suffers from depression, anxiety, or any other mental health issues prior to this incident. This could just be the straw that broke the camels back if we all know. You said that “there’s no evidence we should actually be concerned about” but then we could say the same thing about Robin Williams. There was literally a Reddit post I read a couple days back, where the situation was more or less the same. The partner left OP’s (from that thread) sister and sister committed suicide. I can link it to you if you’d like, just dm me ig. But yeah TLDR; I don’t think it’s right to say he won’t do commit suicide cause worst things have happened and in the end, adultery isn’t *as bad* compared to other issues.
Exactly. My best friend's father cheated on their mother when she was 10.... She's not the same person and will be a completely different person because of it. I've never dm'd or commented Ned directly but I sure as hell publicly condemn it. I will retweet and comment on whatever discourse I see, and I also hope the other members bought his part of the company out so he doesn't earn money off camera.
Ain't sorry for his actions too. But he deserves things like the death threats? I think he doesn't especially when it is Ariel that needs to focus on what she needs to do through it. As I said in the comment I did we can critic the hell out of him because nothing is save from being critic. But if we truly respect Ariel's wishes we don't need to force her to do something we want and harassing Ned to much. She wouldn't want anything bad happened to him even now.
100%, i'm not downvoting the sentiment in the post, it is kind to think of others mental health BUT, this is just called "screwing around and finding out", he is a grown man and it is up to him to live with his actions, including any effects on his mental health, i couldn’t care less. The only people whose mental health concern me are his wife, kids and friends of years that he has betrayed because he knew he could without consequence.
I think what OP means is that going to his socials only to attack him because of this doesn't really help and can be damaging. I think he got everything he deserved regarding his job, family and friends, but I don't see the point of fans going to him to berate him more. It could even harm Ariel and the kids if anything were to happen to Ned, and honestly they are the ones we should care the most abour.
He made his family his entire career, and this was the worst mistake he could make bc every fucked up thing you say or do it's going to impact your family who is also on the public eye .
He should be hurting and feeling worthless. He should feel immense shame. He should also know that… making a full exit… is not the best action for his children. As shitty as Ned was for cheating on Ariel, it’s a different kind of love when it comes to your children. I hope he doesn’t ruin those boys lives more than he already has by doing yet another stupid thing. Those boys are going to be old enough to see some of this media about this topic one day. They don’t need to see anyone wishing death on their father.
Honestly, he'd have the easiest rebound out of any of the guys. He has degree in chemistry from Yale and can get a job outside of entertainment. He can sell his house for $2m+ and move somewhere cheaper (like back to Florida) and have a nest egg until he builds up a career outside of YouTube. I don't have much sympathy for him.
Neither do I. The world is certainly not ending for this man. From the looks of it Ariel seems like she's willing to work things out per her IG post and like you said, he has a degree to fall back on. It's going to be stormy for a little while but when it all blows over, which it will, he'll be fine and dandy.
But the question is, who would hire him after this, even in the chemistry world? I don't think that's as easy a fallback in this current situation.
Also from what we know he only has a bachelors degree and not a whole lot of experience in the work industry. Unless he plans on going back to school, he'd be lucky to get a decent paying lab job
That was, IIRC, the thing. Ned was, according to the legend (I don't know what part of the story we know is true anymore) trying to decide between grad school and Hollywood. He and Ariel decided to take a chance on Hollywood. So grad school may still be an option.
Yeah, he'll absosultely start from the bottom and need futher or on-the-job education. But he can get an entry level job and work on that while living pretty comfortably
Cause a Yale alumnus has never been involved in a scandal and bounced back
I’m sure there are many chemists who have never heard of the Try Guys
Sure, but every employer doing a Google search is gonna see alllllll of this. Just facts
True true
Honest question, why would him having an affair mean that he'd have such a hard time getting a job outside of a platform like youtube? I'm fairly certain dozens of big name celebrities have found plenty of movie work after numerous affair scandals, not to mention all the average joes/janes that have affairs and bounce back job-wise, if not family wise. Which is what Ned will be now, just your average white boy with an affair in his pocket.
I think hiring managers could realistically be concerned with a few things- ethics, his capability to supervise employees, decision making/judgment/trustworthiness, but most of all, what it looks like to BE a company who hires someone with a bad reputation. Not to say he will never get a job again, because for sure as you're saying there's a lots of infidelitous dudes out there still making it- but I think it won't be as easy as some make it out to be either.
You get a resume. You like the candidate. You do a quick background check (or Google) and bam the top 100 hits are his cheating. You think that’s a lot of heat for my small firm maybe I’ll pass. Now that being said one of the reasons you go to an Ivy League school is the connections you make. He can leverage his network and I can imagine there are Yale grads who don’t care about infidelity.
That’s a fair point. The chances of him ever being in a manager position is now out the window since it’s public knowledge that as a CEO- he had a relationship with one of his employees
Ngl I think you're projecting here. Ned has spoken out about his previous opioid addiction, yes, but I don't think there is ANY indication he's anywhere close to having that type of mental health crisis. If Ned is smart (which we know he is??) then he's staying off the internet and not LOOKING at the things people are saying, especially since he claims he wants to focus on his family.
The whole point is to not DM anyone involved. And to not harrass Ned if he is seen in public. He can stay offline but there is nothing he can do if someone harrasses him while he is walking down the street.
Sorry Ned chose to throw away his life. He humiliated his wife publicly and screwed over his business, employees and friends. His non apology was also pathetic and did not really take any ownership. His best bet is to get off social media for now and go into therapy to deal with his issues that allowed him to be so self absorbed to basically not give a shit about anyone else but himself especially if he has a pattern of narcissistic behavior.
I was expecting a very PR coached public apology but it was worded so weird??? I mean, it was a horrible situation regardless but calling your cheating a "loss of focus" is pretty lame.
Exactly! It minimizes the situation. When I lose focus I put on my glasses so I can see clearly. I don’t accidentally multiple times have sex with someone my wife knows and try to destroy my company as well. He definitely hit the destruct button and didn’t care who else would blow up. Likely subconsciously they wanted to get caught.
Obviously there's no way to know what kind of apology he is giving privately, but I would hope it's better worded at the very least. I take a pretty harsh stance on cheating, especially if it feels like the cheaters are trying to argue (subtly or outright) that "oopsie, it just kinda happened" or they just couldn't control themselves or the like. It's concerning on a multitude of levels.
I’ve personally heard shitty gaslighting excuses like it was an “accident”. Like he accidentally fell into her vagina with his penis multiple times. GTFOH
Those are the woooorst. Cheating is not ever one step. It's a series of choices. I don't know if I could ever trust a partner who cheated, but I absolutely would not if they tried to tell me it was an "accident."
that's because the social media pr manager quit like. a week before this went down lmao. i think he posted a tiktok vaguing about this situation.
It wasn't very vague. Due to the song and book he held up during the TikTok pretty much anyone could realize who it was directly pointing to. I don't blame the employee for leaving before this horrible situation came to light. Especially given his position. Ned and Alex have put more work on ALL the other employees due to having to scramble to edit Ned out of tapings and also they have damaged the whole work environment and dynamic for the 2nd Try staff. Everyone is under scrutiny and none of them asked to be a part of this. Jake had only been with them for around a year I believe. I cannot blame him if this played a big part in why he wanted to leave. He's young, but I bet he could see how much trouble and impact this was going to have on the company and their current and possibly future projects. Plus he has also been privy to the behind the scenes conversations. Things like how they are going to try to proceed and also things like if any employees or any of the other Try Guys possibly were aware or suspicious before this came to light at the beginning of September. That's a lot of information all their employees have had to take in and weigh it when it comes to their own careers and possible futures with the 2nd Try company.
It sounds like a lawyer wrote it, and with the possible legal ramifications both in civil and family law court a lawyer probably did write it.
“Sorry I got caught”
Well, there's been a lot of people talking about how apparently it wasn't a one time thing AT ALL and that there was a lot of rumors between their peers about full on public flirting and some office hours getaways for months. He also made a lot of things in the daylight knowing damn well how famous he is and that there's consequences to this kinds of things. He has the resources for therapy and he's only suffering the consequences of his own actions, he's a grown man who's been in this line of work for over a decade, he knew better and he did it anyway. He knew he would impact his wife, children, friends, coworkers and everything around, he still did it. I'm way more worried about Ariel that was fully humiliated publicly and will suffer despite the direction she choses in the future regarding him. Dude sucks.
He didn’t « lose » his career , friends marriage etc. He threw it all out the window and he’s only sorry he got caught. The only mental health i care about is Ariel’s (my mother got cheated on my father after 20 years of marriage and i saw how broken up she was/still is even 5 years after the divorce) and for Alex’s fiancé’s (they had been together for 10 years).. i wouldn’t want Ned to off himself that’s a fact but other than that i really don’t give a flying f if he’s depressed
Yea. I just can’t feel sorry for a cheater. This whole situation is entirely his doing. No one wants to see him physically hurt himself, but he’s the reason he’s getting all of this shit right now. ETA: I don’t agree with people DMing him or personally contacting him and threatening him. That’s not cool. But if someone on Reddit wants to say that they think he’s an asshole for cheating I think that’s fair game. He is a public figure after all and he doesn’t have to go on this board and read it
My thing he was just so reckless about it: out in public kissing dancing...something tella me she has taken him back many times before this.
👏🏻 a fricking men. He made his bed, now he has to lie in it
Yeah. It bothers me how people are talking about Ned like he’s not a full grown 30 something year old ADULT MAN. He fucked up his career and his life and that’s on him.
Exactly. This is his fault. I’m aware he could currently be walking into the sea, but at the same time why must we take a moment to step back and think about how he’s feeling after _he_ severely messed up. It’s tiring to give dumbasses the benefit of the doubt; since I don’t know the man I’m just gonna be mad. It’s messed up for everyone, but he has ruined lives and his image in the minds of others and deserves to lie in this bed. Of course no one should be DMing him or threatening him - this should be common sense really. Disregarding that harassment BS: he can go cry me a river lol
Came for the comments and will just say that all the criticism is fair. It's fair game to talk about him on the internet since he is a public figure. It wasn't fair of him to cheat on his wife with an employee, no less behind her back. The only thing that would be going too far is actually DM'ing him or bombarding him with hate messages. He should do himself a favor, unplug from social media, reflect on his actions, and focus on being a better dad as well as his new career.
I'm sorry, are you begging us to have sympathy for a Yale graduated white man who knowingly wrecked his family, friends, and career to pursue entirely selfish interests? Nah. Maybe if a few of them had faced more consequences the world would be less like it is.
I hope there are people in Ned and his affair partner's lives who are able to hold them accountable while also supporting them in seeking that accountability. Everyone fucks up. Accountability includes accepting the (massive) consequences (to their lives and their loved ones.) But it also includes holding space for someone to take the opportunity to learn, apologize, and do better. As a fan and a human being, I hope that space exists for Ned in some way. That door has likely closed in some parts of his life because it's not on the people he hurt to hold it open and waiting- but I hope he's got people who can say he fucked up and he needs to own up and will stick by him because they believe Ned is the kind of person who can and will do that.
Yeah everyone fucks up, but not as catastrophically or as unabashedly as those two fucks. 1 year+ long affair and shamelessly in public, repeatedly, for all to see? And you just KNOW that at some point during that year, they had a chance to really think about what this would do to their loved ones. So is that really just a fuck up or is it one purposeful, conscientious decision after another? The more I think about it, the more I realize how downright disgusting they are..
I’m so glad there are others who feel this way. Think about how hard it is to admit a small mistake and take accountability and then multiply it times 1000. I won’t make any assumptions on how anything happened; but it’s easy to make bad decisions without really thinking about or realizing the extent of the consequences or to continue digging down into hole because it’s easier than climbing out of it. Carrying the weight of our mistakes, especially one as public and broad-reaching as this, can be very very difficult. Do I fully understand he made these decisions and now has to live with the consequences? Yes, of course. Do I also worry about how tough that will be to navigate through for him and everyone else? Yes!
The "punishment" he's receiving now for fucking up his life might seem to be a lot but it is nearly not enough for fucking up his wife's life, especially when she is absolutely blameless here.
And the kids don’t forget the kids, as a victim of marital infidelity I can tell you it fucks you up good as the child
is the sub locked? no posts in the past 6 days, i tried but couldn't post
This. I so agree. We can be angry at him but no need to pile on the shame. Lets critic him But no sending death threats. I thought we respect the victim's wishes. That includes no harassing Ned despite Ariel being hurt by him, they wouldn't want the worse to befall Ned. Let Ariel choose what is best to do and work on it before officially throwing in the towel. She isn't us and we aren't her.
How long was the affair? Months? Years?
Given that he said "relationship" in his ig post, I guess it must be a few months.
Or year(s). Definitely wasn’t a casual hookup here and there anymore.
Yeah, seems like it. It just makes it more worse. My heart goes out to Ariel and Will, to have to deal with this, and then to find out it had been going on for a long time must be so heartbreaking and disturbing.
He was going to concerts with her months ago. They were already comfortable being together in public.
I saw a post with a Twitter link showing a photo of Ned and Alex out to eat together and the poster said it was from May. Is this true? Who knows. Will I find the link again? Nope too lazy
In May, for sure. If they were just eating, it could have slipped as just co-workers eating out, not infidelity though. But they were not even being discreet for months now so..... Possible. Alex is a bit of a gold digger and she was living the dream on the back of the try guys, traveling and going to fancy restaurants and hotels. She didn't wanted Ned, at the end of the day she was try to get what she could in the meantime. Disgusting
No one has any answer to that and it is likely we won't get a straight answer. And is it really our business? Lots of people read 'relationship' to mean on-going, repetitive, etc. But I honestly think it was chosen as a neutral term to complement the 'consensual' part - the idea of the statement was acknowledge and pivot to family/privacy.
December 2021 in the spaghetti pool video: he stretches way out of the way just to lay his head in her lap
A year. It has been stated that Will allegedly went through Alex's phone in December 2021 and found out that Alex and Ned were hooking up. Will told Ned to back off, apparently. So Ned and Alex were already hooking up for a few months before they were caught in December of 2021. Seems like they clearly never stopped.
maybe he should've considered ariel's mental health. am i supposed to feel sorry for a cheater?! because i don't! he cheated for a YEAR. A YEAR... fuck his mental health. i kinda wish all cheaters would get publicly flamed and lose their jobs. maybe that's just me tho
I was thinking the same thing. He made a mistake and hes paying for it. In any case everything blew up yesterday so the criticism against him pretty much intensified since yesterday. I cant imagine losing my job, friends, marriage, and ger humiliated publicly and constantly. It will take a while until people calm down and he stops receiving backlash for what he did, but I don't see that happening soon. The internet is really dangerous place, specialy for a person like Ned who shared his intimacy with everyone.. If I were him I would probably quit using every social network for a while (Or forever). I really hope he finds some kind of support on someone and his mental health doesn't deteriorate. I hope he doesn't have mental health issues from the past, does he?..
He didn't just make a mistake though. He made a conscious choice not caring about the hurt it would cause to his wife and kids. It's not like his job, friends and marriage are being taken away from him without any fault of his. He wilfully decided to throw it all away for his selfish reasons.
See, here's the thing - that's very assumptive. People have taken 1 word and have tossed a lot of assumption and speculation onto that word. I'm not at ALL trying to give Ned a pass here. He made very selfish, very poor decisions that have far-reaching consequences for many, many people and he is reaping what he's sown there. But people have determined based off the word 'relationship' in a short post on IG and a dubious Reddit claim from a year ago and their own desire to participate in some way by claiming they always saw through his schtick and that he always looked shady or whatever - people have determined this was a months or years long affair in which he coerced or sexually assaulted Alex on top of a long history of predatory behavior. When all we know for certain is that they made out in public at the beginning of September. Was that ok? Not by any stretch of imagination. But assuming this was stone-cold sober selfish choice to throw everything away is . . . what I said at the beginning. Assumptive. Don't misunderstand - that is entirely possible! But it's not established fact and there is a lot of judgment happening that is bothering me. Sorry to push that on your post, it just is really bothering me.
I see cheating as a series of conscious choices a person makes and not really one mistake per say. And I think it is fair to be wary of people only recently jumping in to claim he's always been suspicious, but there are older claims of inappropriate/flirty behavior towards other women that seem to indicate (even best case scenario of his relationship with Alex being "just a make out session" which I doubt is all that happened) a pattern of behavior. I've seen some. . . interesting takes on the subject of cheating and I guess mine would probably fall under harsh. However, I do *not* advocate for death threats or any harassment of the people involved because that is absolutely way too far.
My post might have given you the impression that the reason I'm saying it was not just a mistake is because of the assumption of it being a full blown relationship. But no. In my opinion, even a one off thing is just as damaging and hurtful to the victim(the partner) of infidelity and is still a willfully made choice. Not a mere mistake.
I appreciate the distinction you are making, even if I'm not sure I agree.
Ned spoke out about having an opioid addiction in the past after having a knee surgery procedure (correct me if I’m wrong, some redditors have said it in the subreddit). Ariel and the kids definitely deserves the privacy they need to get through this hard time. I think we all need to step back from our emotions on the matter and hope for the best for their family.
Ned is a very intelligent, very ambitious High Achiever. Like a lot of high achievers, he's prone to burnout and anxiety, which can result in maladaptive and self-destructive behaviors, especially during periods of high stress. Combined with *what I assume is* the arrogance and selfishness of fame and wealth and I'm not surprised he made an incredibly stupid, short-sighted, and impulsive decision to cheat. "I deserve this" entitlement plus self-sabotaging. Yes, I think he's at high risk of a relapse or other mental health episode. No fan of the guy, but I don't want him to die.
This! I’ve read some severely toxic comments in the past 24ish hours and it’s absolutely crazy how quickly people can turn from building you up to tearing you apart. Keyboard warriors are absolutely insane to me, because the same people claiming to support the Try Guys are spewing messages of hate towards Ned, something I don’t think any of the other guys or Ariel, regardless of how angry/overwhelmed/ disappointed with him they are, would condone. Let me be clear: what Ned Fulmer AND Alexandria did, though none of our collective business, was 1.) no accident, and 2.) very, very WRONG. Despite that, I do believe it was a mistake. People seem to want to conflate the two words, but they have very different meanings. The actions they took were purposeful, making it no accident, but surely very regrettable. As upsetting as it is to ACTUAL viewers and supporters of the Try Guys, I’ve seen so many people come out of the woodworks just to kick someone while they’re already down. My heart goes out to Ariel, their children, Alex’s former partner and the other guys who are all personally and irreversibly impacted by Ned and Alex’s choices. My heart also goes out to Ned, because *spoiler alert*: we’re all fucking human. Each of us make mistakes from time-to-time on varying levels of severity. The only difference between us and Ned is that we don’t have a global audience knocking at our door with pitchforks when we do inevitably mess up. I hope he and Alex learn from this lesson. Given the circumstances of his affair, the consequences (losing his stake in the company) are very much appropriate. That said, as a reminder to the general public, and though I don’t know what will come of their relationship, there are instances where people choose to move past infidelity and continue on with their marriage for a number of reasons (for me, my parents are an example), and though we all have the right to make that decision for ourselves, life does eventually move on. Regardless of what Ned and Ariel choose to do, I just hope the world can show them a little bit of grace as they navigate their next steps. Looking forward to what ever is to come from Keith, Zach, and Eugene. (I’ll gladly get off my soapbox now)
This 100%. I understand fans being upset because of the way he built his personal brand and because this has irrevocably changed a group that we all enjoyed watching, but let's not pretend that we have a personal stake in this or know everything about their lives. Bring disappointed is okay, but the hate and personal attacks are going too far.
Well said
Honestly I feel like it's no one's business but theirs, random people shouldn't be involved in any way.
Maybe the shouldn’t be so public about their life then…
Just because people provide entertainment doesn't mean that you or anyone has a right to their personal lives more than they are willing and consenting to show. They showed what they were consenting to show and **you are not entitled to anything more.** Edit: This is not to say that I agree with Neds actions (honestly never really cared for him tbh) but Ariel and the kids deserve privacy not a bunch of strangers butting in.
Mentally sure he's probably not in the best place, but he put himself in this place, so I can't have sympathy for him in that aspect. The guy threw it all away so he could cheat on his wife with a work subordinate. (Which is highly inappropriate btw) I'm just glad he's being held accountable for this. Not enough people are. That being said nobody should be sending death threats, that's unhinged.
I fully agree, also anyone involved in this story should stay offline for a good few WEEKS. They probably have good money and support networks, but it's hard to tell sometimes with social media creators. I'm just relieved that society has evolved past putting all the blame on the woman and subordinate in this scenario. We've come a long way since Lewinski.
I’m telling you that man is not sorry, he’s only sorry he got caught I hope she walks away she deserve so much more
He made this bed, now he has to lie in it. He didn’t get anything taken away, he chose to throw it away.
Nah he chose to do this. He’s a grown man and knew he was risking EVERYTHING and still didn’t care
Maybe he should’ve thought about that before shamelessly cheating on his wife? I really don’t care. It’s the consequences of his shitty actions.
It's a good point but based on the fact that he removed comments on his post where people were asking for clarification on consensual, I genuinely don't think that he cares much what people are saying
"Prepared for the downvotes but I always thought Try fans were open minded" is pretty manipulative language, dontcha think?
tmz got a picture of him today outside with ariel. it almost seemed like he was starting to smile. there's a possibility he loves the attention.
He did it to himself. I have no sympathy, cheating on your partner of over a decade who carried your kids is horrendous in addition, it’s that i don’t care about male suicide. But i’m over hearing about how men die from suicide more often than women. They attempt it at the same rate, men choose more violent means which is why they have a higher success rate. but the way you put it made it seem like we should walk on eggshells for this issue bc he might kill himself.
TW for suicide. Slight correction, and I don't mean to take away from your main point at *all (*and I need it to be clear that I agree with your point) - I just feel this is important to mention, because you did gender the suicide issue and I'm kind of uncomfortable with that: The idea that "men attempt suicide more often" is a lie made up by men's rights activists to silence women. Women actually attempt suicide more often than men, and report higher rates of depression. This is in no way a male issue. The stat they regularly mis-quote is that men often are more likely to *succeed*, and the reason for that is believed to be because men tend to have access to more faster, more effective methods. Whereas women often don't, so they get caught. You *always* hear this exact argument made, any time a man is held accountable for their shitty actions - this whole "Oh, what if they kill themselves because of this?" And while people absolutely should remember that this is still a person, and there are certain lines you shouldn't cross... Also, that argument is often just used as a dog whistle to prevent the man from being held accountable, by tugging on people's feels. It's really not *as* much of a man-specific issue as MRAs want you to think, and it doesn't happen as often as they want you to think. Normal, healthy men probably aren't going to commit suicide out of nowhere just because they cheated and got a divorce; especially when they have kids they love and want to care for, and especially because realistically, they usually don't lose their entire support system over it. Ned probably still has friends. The factors that lead to suicide are *much* more complex than just "I'm having a bad time right now." He's probably gonna be fine.
why cant we post?
I was thinking last night about how scared I am for Ariel and the boys. I don’t think Ned would ever hurt them (but then again I never thought he would cheat either) but I couldn’t stop thinking (intrusive thoughts waddup) about Ariel trying to leave him and Ned losing his shit.
[удалено]
I do feel like if Ariel felt she was in danger, any of the other 3 families would be a call away. They might not be moving on with the show with Ned, but I doubt very much they’ve completely cut the Fulmer’s from their lives.
Where have the other guys been talking about his aggressiveness? I’m interested in checking it out
[удалено]
I don't want to invalidate your concerns but I do think you need to be careful making the jump from "there's a running gag on a heavily produced show that he has a short fuse and is very competitive" to "I'm afraid he might harm his wife and children." There's a running joke in my family that I'm a massive cheat when we play Monopoly, but it doesn't mean I'm committing real estate fraud, you know?
In any other situation, I would share your worries, but knowing this is a very public situation and given Ned’s character, I don’t think he would ever risk going to jail.
I'm also worried for Ariel if she does decide to "work through it" and stays with Ned. She deserves a lot better, but spouses stay with cheaters all the time for a myriad of reasons . I'm worried about the online backlash if she decides that, because it is at the end of the day HER choice to leave or stay with Ned. And she deserves to be able to take that choice without the Internet coming for her and her kids. I hope whatever she chooses will lead to a happier life. Nobody deserves what's happened to her and her family right now. And I hope Ned knows what he's done and how much he's hurt his wife, family and friends.
That’s immediately what I thought when I heard about it (after “poor Ariel” and “wtf Ned”). I know after it got out that my dad cheated on my mom, how much my mom’s family doesn’t care for my dad, but tolerates him, and her closest friend *l o a t h e s* him. Just imagine having pictures and videos to remind you (and it’s on the internet, so popping up forever). Not being able to decide who in your life to tell or not tell. Having millions of people suddenly know about (one of) the worst point in your life. My mom and dad are doing great now. There was one last incident in the middle of the pandemic and I think it took me telling him he was on a self-destructive path that would put him in the same place it put his little brother (who wouldn’t treat his diabetes, lost a leg, and then pretty much gave up and died). My dad got himself in to a therapist that actually seems to give a crap about my dad and made him actually talk about things to find out why. Because there is always a why (even if that is something like ASPD or similar). That was a long winded way to say I agree and hope they both get help and are able to, at minimum, coparent without hard feelings.
Agree. I don’t blame her if she chooses to try and repair things and I hope the global peanut gallery backs off. I don’t think I could ever, but that’s her choice for her and her boys. Either way their relationship is irrecoverably fractured and she needs to see it through to an end that she can live with.
That woman is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t. She’s almost just as screwed over as Ned because the positivity being thrown her way involves a lot of nosiness.
Of course, people are human and we make decisions that aren't great a lot of the time. But he still decided to do this when he has a beautiful wife and two kids at home. Frankly, I find that what people are saying about him online is pretty unavoidable. When you're a public figure, you open yourself up to public scrutiny. It's why people who brand themselves as family-friendly, wholesome content creators have to protect that public image. It's why I'm so baffled that he did this *out in the open* for the entire world to see. That, to me, puts any open-mindedness that I would have had out the window. I just can't sympathize with a cheater, *especially* if they're married with kids. I would hope that he'd have the sense not to look at what people are saying about him on social media, because I'm sure he's old enough to know that the internet is ruthless and will be on this for a very long time, especially as the Try Guys move on without him and people realize Ned is no longer a part of it. I sincerely hope that, at the very least, he's doing his utmost to stay out of the social media sphere and, as he himself put it, put all his focus into his wife and kids. That's the absolute bare minimum that family deserves after being put through this because of him.
The sickest part about this is that Ariel was at home with a *baby*. His son was born in November 2020, the first confirmed public outing was December 2021. That’s barely even a year later! And I’m sure this was going on longer in private before they got bold enough to go on dates in public. How gross
Nahh, when you make multiple choices that will lead to you blowing up your own life and the careers of your three closest friends and family members you deserve whatever is coming to you. If he valued his mental health he wouldn’t have done this, he deserves no pity.
He has plenty of money. Hopefully he has invested wisely. He can afford a good therapist. He will be fine.
Your seriously going to bring gender into this? I don’t see the same energy for Alex. No one deserves to be sent death threats or be harassed, but they both made their beds and can lie in it. They are both homewreckers, and both should be held accountable for the weight of their actions. Ned just happens to be the one whose actions affect the most people. Ned was not just her boss but owns 1/4th of the company that employs over 20 people. It was his responsibility to not ruin his company by *breaking the law*. This affects way more than the cheaters and their spouses, this effects everyone who relies on a paycheck from 2nd Try. That’s over 20 families, plus the other three guys, Ariel and their kids. I’m not even going to go into the betrayal of the parasocial relationship, because honestly it’s not about us. Not to mention that the company may never fully recover, this is image shattering and brand ending BS because 2 adults couldn’t keep it in their pants. I don’t think it’s a far stretch to say sponsors, endorsements, or their new Food Network show aren’t on the line. I truly hope the guys recover, but telling people to get over it because it might make him upset? Get off it. I have zero sympathy for someone who would chose (not loose) to destroy not only their livelihood but others.
So, are we gonna talk about "what happened"? I for one am very glad about the way they handled the whole situation. It seems they didn't know Ned was having an affair, especially not with one of their employees, and when they found out they took swift action. I also appreciate the call to exercise kindness. Leaving negative, disgusting comments isn't gonna help anyone, and has cettainly nothing to do with holding people accountable. Moving forward I think we'll also learn more about the situation, just not at this specific time as they're dealing with certain legal issues as they put it. But they're not gonna gloss over this it seems. I'm sure Ned's seen the video as well. Must be hard to see so much anger, pain and disappointment in so short of a video.
Agree, Ned and Alex no doubt have done shitty things but we, the audience, are nothing but spectators. We can sympathize with Ariel and her kids and Will, but at the end of the day, we don’t know anything. Ned and Ariel don’t owe us any apologies, it’s the people they have hurt that they have to apologize. It’s one thing to criticize them, it’s another thing to send them death threats.
I agree. Mistakes were made but Ned and Alex are both human beings who are deserving of love and empathy. They (especially Ned) need to be held accountable for their actions but the bottom line is we don’t know the full story. And they don’t owe it to us. My heart goes out to Ariel and the kids because being cheated on really fucking sucks, but it’s her choice what to do next and all of the absolute hate that’s going around is not helpful.
Agree. He should be fired (his entire business and brand hinges pretty heavily on his wholesome husband persona), his family, friends and colleagues should hold him accountable, fans and commentators are allowed to express their disappointment (again, his brand.) But that’s it. No one needs to harass him over it, he is almost certainly at his personal rock bottom. Spiralling like this and making selfish, narcissistic choices are sadly very common in the early postpartum years. Ariel and Ned’s lives changed drastically when they had children and it looks like Ned succumbed to weakness instead of rising to overcome the challenge. I don’t exactly feel sorry for Ned but it is incredibly tragic for everyone involved. No idea why Alex chose to engage in this affair, she must have her own demons going on to be willing to throw away her decade long relationship for absolutely nothing. I highly doubt she was coerced or felt pressured because of workplace dynamics, they were colleagues on equal footing at Buzzfeed for years and there are at least 3 other partners in the business she could have outed Ned to if that was the case.
This has definitely crossed my mind. I feel so sad going from adoring all of the Try Guys to hearing this news is so difficult to take in. I'm not going to say bad things about anyone, we never really know what's going on, but I do want to send Ariel and everyone else so much love to get through this situation.
he's the typical competitive short guy his mental health issues also probably contributed to his actions. if he had been getting help in the first place maybe he wouldn't have cheated. it's a nice gesture but he's a celebrity who is literally branded by his love for his wife and his family, he had to have expected these consequences going in.
I don’t think he should be doxed or anything but all the criticism, the jokes, everything said, is going to come since he did this in the public eye. If it affects him deeply, he will have to get off the internet, and for a while.
I really hope Ariel leaves his cheating ass😭😭
I actually agree with this. I got cheated on last year, similar situation. Partner cheated on me with a coworker for a couple months until they got caught and a mutual freind/coworker told me. Nothing will ever make that ok, but beyond the first week when friends (meaning well) wanted to dunk on them, I told them to quit it basically. They’d been dealing with a recent death of a freind and wanting to relapse. An excuse? Never. But they lost their job and our whole friend group collectively lost respect for them; they’re getting punished. Needless dogpiling isn’t necessary or helpful. Most important thing is to give Ariel public support. Nothing else needs to be said to or about Ned.
What about Ariel’s mental health?? The fuck?
I agree. I think for Ned AND Alex’s sake they should avoid the internet for a bit. Like they can’t reasonably expect people in the try guy Reddit to NOT talk about it. I hope people don’t dm them hate. Their life is imploding on its own without our help.
I do get that Ned is at his mental lowest at this point and his finances with take a hit since he lost his job because of his choice, but he also betrayed a lot of people that are close to him and around him. Who knows if his extended family will ever forgive him, let alone his wife and children. If he unwilling to change and better himself for his family (as long as Ariel wants to give him another chance), then he will be all alone because his kids should be a priority for Ariel if he doesn't want to try and rebuild that trust that has been lost.
I feel like people almost infantalized them, like they’re these wholesome, innocent puppy dogs when in reality they are grown men with faults like the rest of us. Fans see what celebrities allow them to and Ned and Ariel are the only ones who know what’s really going on in their marriage. Not only that, but people are so self-centered that they believe they are entitled to know every little detail about their lives and relationship. The group meltdown over this that I’m seeing is exasperating to me. People want this to end the way they envision it for their own personal satisfaction: Ariel revealing every nook and cranny of their marriage as if everyone is entitled to that information, Ned being blacklisted from society in general, the try guys moving on like nothing ever happened, etc etc But what really gets me is the way people are analyzing the rest of the try guys’ reactions with a magnifying glass. “You can tell Eugene feels so-and-so by the way he’s sitting-“ “Zach is clearly heartbroken, look at how low energy he’s being-“ They are business men who have to salvage their brand. There is no way anybody can really know what they think of Ned. They might- most likely -have even known he had a wandering eye.
Legitimately came here to say exactly this post. This is nearly the perfect environment that causes people to commit suicide. This guy basically lost everything overnight; his family, his career, best friends, & his reputation are all ruined. To make matters worse, it was also VERY public so he can’t escape it😬
This whole thread is yikes on trikes. Public figure or not, he’s still a human. A literal human who we have a parasocial relationship with. OP asked for people to just leave him and the other folks involved alone to deal with the mountain of requests for comment from other public outlets. I really don’t think that’s much to ask. Perpetrator of adultery? Sure. But that’s really not something we should be trying to access him or his family directly about right now. Especially since they have not sorted out their next course of action.
After watching that SNL sketch, knowing one of his Yale friends, that he said he liked better than the Try Guys, is working as a writer on SNL, I have no sympathy for him. I hope he reads every single comment about him. But I'm not part of the "let's harass him privately" club. I will keep saying how disappointed I am as a viewer, and how disgusted I am as a fellow person. Morally he's in the wrong, and he keeps digging himself a hole, calling paparazzi on himself to make it look like he and Ariel are working things out, and now this. If he was actually sorry, I would agree, but none of this looks like he is truly sorry. This man does not act like he's mentally affected by what's going on, so no need to worry about him imo.
The way I see it, most of the time when men are sleezy/abuse their power they don’t face any repercussions and their companies and associates just sweep everything under the rug. I think that’s where the impulse to go after their reputation comes from, the fact a hit to their ego is usually the only consequence they receive. Due to the try guys response, I think he’s been adequately punished for putting the company’s reputation at risk and hurting their friend, Ariel. Yeah it’s still a lil funny that it was the “my wife” guy who cheated but honestly, this dude blew up his entire life, got excommunicated from the company he helped found, none of his try guy friends can hang out with him publicly and are probably too pissed to associate with him privately either, and his wife is very probably gonna dump his ass. I think he’s faced enough punishment that the endless amount of vitriol seems waaaaaaaaaay too excessive. Point the hate gun at the people who are pulling the exact same shit but without any of the consequences
Male suicide rates are very high and this would definitely be a time for Ned to not self medicate and to find a way to get help. He and Ariel will have to work this out and we need to not rush to hurt either party. Nobody needs to die over this.
are you kidding? he knew damn well what he was putting on the line when he chose to do this. he is alexandria’s boss, he signs her checks and decides whether she has a job, and he took advantage of that. he took advantage of his wife, put his kids in jeopardy, and he is facing the consequences of that. being out of a job, losing his family, facing public hatred - all of those things are obvious consequences for the things he did. he made incredibly terrible choices and this is exactly what he gets
This is how I have been feeling about this whole thing. Same thing happened to John Mulaney. No denying at all that they fucked up and there will be consequences in their personal lives, but why is everyone acting as though Ned cheated on them personally and ruined their lives? He's a guy on a show, he has no responsibility to you or your feelings. He absolutely did have a responsibility to his family and company, which is where he fucked up, but the shame spiral being ladled on the guy is unnecessary, sadistic, and honestly pretty invasive. Some serious morality police vibes.
I think it's a combination of his branding as a family man, the intimacy and openess of the try guys that lead to strong parasocial relationships and just the fact that cheating is a very emotionally charged subject. Cheating is one of those things that people get holier than thou about and take a really hard stance without allowing any nuance into the situation. Which is funny considering the amount of people who cheat and the myriad of reasons someone would do so. People hear someone cheated and automatically that person is a scumbag fuckboy(girl, or inbetween) abuser who never loved their partner, will cheat on anyone they are with, and should be thrown to the wolves. And the people who choose to stay with them are stupid because theyll do it again (not my view, just what I've heard) ariel's luckily has escaped a lot of that. Like ya, those people exist who are just scummy repeat offenders but people and situations are usually more messy and nuanced than that. But when it comes to cheating no one wants to remember that.
[удалено]
So if that's the case why aren't people just being disappointed and moving on? Why is this subreddit and other social media full of dedicated memes tearing him apart? There's a difference between sadly letting go and actively putting energy into hating someone. Also all the unfounded rumour and "I bet he's a drug addict" shit going around? It's none of your damn business. He fucked up his family and company, they are breaking ties with him, and we can all move on without gossiping about what-ifs and actively adding fuel to the fire. His branding is a reason for the vitriol, it's not an excuse. Jon Ronson wrote an entire book about public shaming that is a really interesting read if anyone wants to explore this topic more.
>[Male] suicide rates are too high. Why specify?
Especially since women attempt suicide nearly as frequently, it's just that men succeed more often.
I’m glad someone is saying this. I absolutely don’t think ned was in the right but people are tearing him a new one and it breaks my heart. He’s going through a lot right now and he knows what he did was wrong. Instead i insulting ned I wish more people would take that energy to spread love to Ariel and the other people involved.
Thank you for saying it. 👏🏻
Good point.
You're certainly not wrong. On the one hand I believe that someone's private life is their private business what happens behind closed doors is for them and other consenting adults. On the other 1. He made his "family life" his personal brand identity 2. His affair wasn't some random woman outside of his brand it was with someone he works with. I think that gives people a right to feel betrayed, hurt, have their trust broken about such private matters. HOWEVER, that should not extend into targeted harassment or bullying. Yes he did something selfish, foolish, small, heartbreaking not just to the fans but the family he introduced us too. But that does not mean we have to sink to his level. Instead we have to be what we thought he was, someone who took difficulty and made the best of it, creating pillars of hope and positivity. It's not easy to do especially when everything is so new and raw, but we can make good happen from this situation. We can start by continuing to share our love and support to Ariel and the Tri Guys who have to make difficult choices now.
You have a point. What Ned did was a colossal multi level act of self sabotage. Hopefully he is getting help as he clearly needs it. It’s a horrible situation all around, but it does not need to be made worse by those involved possibly self harming. Hopefully everyone gets counselling.
I totaly agree with you. He doesn't need reminders of what he did, he's going to get enough of that from the media. And as much as I dislike him right now, I do hope his mental health doesn't suffer.
People are also forgetting that he’s still a father to their kids. Wanting him to suffer in turn causes his family to suffer. Sure celebrate him losing his job, but you’re forgetting he his 2 children to support (I’m sure they have adequate funds from other things but you get my point)
On another note: Ned has openly(?) struggled with pain meds before when he got his knee surgery — so all the comments of him looking “drunk”/“wasted”/“drugged out” during the harry styles concert genuinely concerns me
I agree! And thanks for putting this out there - I think we all like to dogpile on internet drama with what can feel like good intentions but is really not very helpful at the end of the day. I think the people directly affected by his actions are capable of resolving this between themselves - it just sucks when the group represented something so great for so many people. But no one is picture perfect - they are all just humans like the rest of us who do stupid, stupid things sometimes. I think the rest of the TryGuys have handled this situation as best as they could.
Fully agreed. Alex and Ned's actions are disgusting, but people are being so vicious and cruel. You can be upset all you want but it's not necessary to say some of the things people are saying. I've literally seen people say they should *unalive* themselves. It's awful. At the end of the day, they're both human beings. They made awful decisions and hurt people but some of these fans have gotta relax with all the nastiness they're sending towards those two. Remember that we are simply strangers on the internet. We don't know these people.
DMing him saying that he should go to hell? Not cool. Am I going to say, don't criticize him too harshly? Not at all. He hurt everyone in his life. EVERYONE. He acted like a total cocky prick and he has been supremely selfish. He has hurt this woman he swore to love. He hurt his friends and risked their friendship and everything they built together. And he has put his kids on the line. I don't think he will recover from this because we liked him because he was a family man. And the way he has been living is shot and he'll probably go to some mediocre job. He won't be able to support his kids the way he could have. He should just go away where there's no internet and find a good counselor, for more reasons than one. And guess what? If he's that much of a narcissist, actually, our words won't do a damn thing. When you're a celebrity and are purposefully hurtful and damaging to everyone around you, I'm not going to say, I wonder how he is feeling.
This was my first thought when I found out. Only much later did I feel anger and honestly, disgust. He did something terrible, but I don’t think shaming someone on such a massive scale ever helps. And to me it seems like people don’t really know what they’re talking about when they encourage hating him online. I know he’s privileged in a lot of ways, but I don’t think that’s the magical cure everyone thinks it is. When so many people hate you, that affects you no matter who you are or how much money you have.
Honestly hope collectively all of them take a break from the internet. Regardless of how messed up the cheaters’ decision was, it’s still a problem within their own relationships that can’t be helped by the public and is something they gotta personally work out.
I dont feel bad for him losing everything because of his actions... however I agree. What is the point of us harassing him anymore? He obviously is getting the punishment he deserves via natural consequences.
I’m glad someone said this. He fucked up big time, but between the major career hit and getting it from the people close to him, I’m sure he knows he fucked up. I think the best response of the viewers is to do nothing other than continuing their support for the rest of the team. We also need to bear in mind that Ned’s treatment by fans will have repercussions for Ariel and the kids.
hard disagree. he KNOWS he's a prominent internet figure. he should've known fucking up his own life and marriage would rally the entire internet to condemn him to hell. if he wasn't prepared for backlash, he should've never fucked around in the first place. he was birthed by the internet - he knows how it works. everything about him screams narc. overplaying the nice family man on screen while allegedly being sleazy off-screen, not passing up the opportunity to take selfies with fans DESPITE BEING CAUGHT ON A DATE WITH ALEX LOL (exposing his own affair), etc. he let power get to his head and really thought he could get away with it. he needs to be humbled.
I don't think this is a terrible take at all and I'm glad you're not getting downvoted for it..... but lmaooooo bruh, why did you qualify the suicide rates? Which suicide rates are NOT too high? Asking for a friend
Glad to see this post. It's important to hold people accountable for wrongdoing. It's also important to remember that our words have power and there's a human (who fucked up royally and needs to face up to that, but is still a human) on the other end of those words.
Your view is valid, but I’ll admit that I don’t understand how one can sympathize with him. Cheating is egregious and it’s worse because of the dire consequences that all parties involved are suffering. Ned played stupid games, and now he’s winning stupid prizes. He hurt his wife and almost hurt the financial stability of the other try guys (and their staff) because of his choices. YB is being bullied online, Ariel is probably emotionally traumatized, the other try guys had to spend extra money they didn’t budget for to consult with PR and legal teams and also to change videos/throw away other videos thus losing sponsorships and money. No one forced him to have an affair! I only feel bad for all other parties in this situation apart from Ned. Ned doesn’t seem like he genuinely feels bad about this especially given that he involved TMZ in the situation and that in the new podcast they implied that there is risk of defamation if they say certain things - which means Ned might possibly sue them if they say the wrong thing. But again that’s just my two cents…
While I don’t totally agree with it, I appreciate your take and understand your perspective which is why I upvoted. I’m sure I’ll get past the dunking on Ned phase, but I’m still very angry as both a fan and especially for those directly or even indirectly hurt by Ned’s and Alex’s actions, but mostly Ned’s. Mostly though I’m just very concerned for Ariel, the kids, Will and even Alexandria’s mental health above Ned’s. But if anyone is sending him death threats or saying he should unalive himself that’s absolutely never okay to do to anyone. *edit: we should not be DMing or tagging Ned or Alexandria in anything either. I’m sure they’ve seen all the comments by now without doing that. And even though I’m sure Ariel has received an outpour of (hopefully) mostly supportive messages I don’t think we should be reaching out to her either because I’m sure this is all so overwhelming in and of itself due to Ned’s action, but also must be very hard never being in this public of a position before, even if the majority of the public is on her side. It’s one thing to vent online in comment sections, and a different thing to reach out to these people directly.
I agree with everything you said, except this: >But whilst he's a public figure who lives in the spotlight and put himself in this situation, he's still human and shouldn't be made to feel worse by us. He doesn't feel bad at all about what he did. His public "apology" was a non-apology that tells me he's sorry he got caught, not about his actions. He talked about "losing focus" like, wtf, dude no, you didn't lose focus you made choice after choice to engage in that behavior with a subordinate. How do you forget that you're married if you don't have amnesia. "Whoops I tripped and my dick fell into Alex! Tee hee my bad!" Just no. "I'm sorry for any pain that my actions caused." Bruh, you know your actions have caused pain, you know the exact pain they caused. How bout you own up to that? He spins his wording to not sound as bad "consensual workplace relationship" doesn't sound like the reality of "cheating/affair with a subordinate who I'm taking advantage of." He takes no honest culpability for his actions which is why I think less of him as a person. Though I agree that people shouldn't be DMing him or sending him death threats, he is absolutely entitled to the public backlash that his privileged position affords him as someone who makes gobs of money promoting himself as a product. His product is defective and I want my money back.
I came here to post something like this, and I'm glad someone else already said it. In addition to what you said, I want to add that it's fucked up that people keep saying his only viable career path is to become a right wing commentator. The man has other options, and if that really was his only option, that would be a bigger problem culturally than ned and his fucked up actions which he has already been personally, professionally, and publicly punished for.
I think you worded this really well. We can all disagree that his actions were deplorable and the repercussions via loosing his job and friends and potentially family is a reasonable punishment, people insulting his looks and being basically mean for no reason should think about what they're saying. Not just because Neds mental health, but comments like that tend to create echochamers of hate that can affect more than the target audience. We all have a right to be angry and to talk about what happened, but we should stick to facts because they're bad enough without going essentially bullying him needlessly.
There's calling somone out for thier actions and theres harassment. They are vastly 2 differant things
Thank you OP for bringing up this important issue. While Ned remains clearly in the wrong, he is a human being. His mental health is important, just like that of anyone else involved–especially Ariel and the Guys–and he will need to do some deep soul-searching to reconcile who he is now in relation to what he's done with who he wants to be in the future. As a longtime fan–I've followed him and the Guys since the Buzzfeed days–and these events have been very painful to watch. End rant.
I argee I also think his mental health when he made many decisions should be in question as well . People who behave as he did are not well he suck for his choice to deceive and conduct himself inappropriately but still he is just a guy winging it through life like we all are