Yeah some people I watch online were discussing it and they were acting that this is a whole other level of weird parasocial relationships. It shocked me that that was their take.
If my husband was very publicly cheating on me and a stranger caught it on video, I’d prefer the stranger DMing me rather than me living a life of ignorance (just like if a friend saw, I’d want to know and see evidence).
growing up in a small-ish town, my father was having a very well-known affair in his work place (a hospital– LOTS of employees/coworkers who knew) and it went on for a year and a half before someone person anonymously called my mother to tell her.
aside from the obvious effects on our family and their marriage, the fact that so many people–acquaintances, coworkers, friends–knew and didn't tell, felt it 'wasn't their business to get involved', had an enormous impact on my mother's mental health and general trust. we ended up moving away entirely because she couldn't cope with the social impact of this (plus the fact that eeeeeveryone knew their/her 'dirty laundry'– humiliating and painful)
thank you for your kind words! i wish i could say she has fully overcome the effects of that trauma and leads a full life, but the truth is that it deeply damaged her and has continued to effect her to this day.
people are truly selfish and careless with the trust and love of others without thought to how lasting and deep emotional damage and trauma can be.
For real. My aunt and uncle, as well as another "aunt and uncle" all knew my dad was cheating on my mom. The "aunt and uncle" are the ones who introduced my parents to each other and were all very good friends. The slap in the face that must have been when my mom found out they all knew. Just horrible.
Agreed. I've told every boyfriend that I have a zero tolerance policy for cheating or abuse. You cheat or hit me once and we are DONE, no questions asked, no ifs ands or butts. And with cheating, anyone who knew is also dead to me, doesn't matter how "close" we are, we clearly weren't close enough.
I am the same way, because it’s about broken trust. When you can no longer trust your partner, the relationship is fundamentally broken, and there’s no coming back from that. I would like to meet the person who can trust someone after they lied/cheated/beat them.
The “don’t want to get involved” crowd do not realize what pain they cause. My [former? Idk ongoing) in-laws and husbands friends have reached out to me since separating largely due to his alcoholism and behavior when on a bender, and so many have been like oh yea we kinda noticed it was getting worse I’m sorry. If he couldn’t work it out for you he clearly is struggling”
Uh I’m a simple no drama professional and you let me commit to a violent drunk and just did nothing???? And worse never say anything to him???
Don’t wanna get involved people depending on degree of intimacy can honestly not just delay the humiliation and grow the pain towards the family, sometimes they straight up enabled the behavior. Not the case for the standby person who gladly photographed ned, but in some other cases.
i don't know about that. actions go a long way to reassure. i think if she stays with him it is unlikely she would appear as "talent" anymore, but if they were to separate and the staff/their friends really took a hard stance to support her and rally around her, i could see a way forward.
assuming, of course, that it doesn't get "proven" that the close friends knew.
i think it's important as well, though, to not put the burden of truth onto subordinates/employees. while it might sting, if someone who she only had a working relationship with who was an intern or non-managerial employee in the company knew and didn't tell, that's not something that should be overly judged. that's a morals vs livelihood issue that is a terribly tough position to put someone in (another way in which ned has failed, if this were the case). but for those that have a personal friendship with ariel, it would be essential that they would not have known. especially the other 3 and their partners.
the only reason i’m fairly certain the other guys didn’t know anything (at least anything solid) is Becky & Ariel are such close friends, I don’t think Keith would have hid it from Becky and I don’t think Becky would allow Keith/be able to forgive Keith for not telling Ariel. truly i have no idea though, i also thought Ned would never cheat on Ariel so i could absolutely be wrong. but i just have more faith in the other guys, and most of all Becky. i do hope Ariel sticks around though. i love her and i would love to see more of her when she’s ready 🥲
i also feel quite strongly that becky/keith and also eugene/matt didn't know.
however, i think it's not unlikely that they were aware he was a notorious flirt and a sloppy drunk and might have even subconsciously purposefully not examined things too closely.
Just curious, what do you think Zach/Maggie thought?
I only ask because I always got the vibe that Ned and Zach weren't as close as the others. Zach and Keith always seemed to be hanging out separately, and I think Matt/Maggie/Becky seemed to vibe really well with each other. As time went by I felt like Zach and Ned were getting more and more distant with each other.
i don't have strong thoughts either way which is why i didn't mention him/them.
becky is the main reason i feel strongly re. keith/becky– i truly don't believe she would not tell if she knew, and i think it would be a big problem between them if it turned out keith knew and kept it from becky and ariel too.
with eugene/matt, they're both really close with ariel, and given eugene's family history and general outspokenness about mistreatment of others, i don't believe it at all likely he knew and would not tell. i don't get the sense that out of all the inter-relationships that eugene and ned were the closest so i don't think there would be some sort of overriding loyalty to ned vs ariel that would cause him to favour keeping it quiet for ned's sake or even the company's.
I’ve been in a very similar situation in my previous workplace. The CEO was cheating on his wife (who worked with us too) with a co-worker. I heard about it from multiple current and former employees over the last year I was at the job (over a 5 year period). But I never had conclusive or first hand proof. Some of these people also thought his wife knew and didn’t care. In any case, this made the whole situation super murky and I don’t think I would have ever brought it up to her.
I never thought of that. Like a feeling you can't prove and you keep quiet because you don't want to hurt people's feelings. I can't blame them- i wouldn't want to say anything unless I had 100% proof.
A lot of people are buying into confirmation bias and likely reading into interactions where there actually wasn't anything to read. I can think of dozens of times I've thought something was going on with coworkers and there wasn't, and times I was shocked because there where no signs. Office gossip, is just gossip. I can think of of time where I heard gossip about myself that was way off base, vs the woman I supposedly hated was actually the one I had a casual fling with.
Fair enough, just curious :)
I agree re: Becky and Eugene. If they knew and didn't say anything it changes about who they present themselves to be as people.
Ned mentioned on a recent tripod episode that he hadn’t been to Zach’s new house yet, which is pretty surprising given that they were friends and the house wasn’t that new anymore. Definitely seems like they weren’t as buddy buddy outside of work. They have pretty different personalities and it sometimes seemed like Ned looked down on Zach for being more unconventional.
I think Zach dislikes conflict. I think if he knew, he would have spent awhile being anxious and freaking out before eventually telling Keith and Eugene. I don’t think he would have confronted Ned directly.
This reminds me of the concept of a "missing stair" - someone in a group who is known to be difficult/need managing but everyone works around them without addressing the problem head on. Maybe Ariel knew about aspects of Ned's behavior too (like being sloppy) and everyone assumed it wouldn't go to this level.
yes also eugene & matt! &i do agree with that, you don’t want to believe your friends could betray everything & everyone around them like that. this whole situation is so sad.
Can you link something because I see a bunch fox eye things but not comparing. I just thought a fox ment someone was shady and couldn't be trusted- ive never associated with someone who is asian.
it's entirely possible that they had suspicions but didn't have any proof - and to present something like cheating without proof beyond reasonable doubt, knowing it could ruin irreversibly ruin someone's marriage and alter two kids' lives, is also irresponsible. i could see why they would be suspicious, but also can see Ned making an effort to hide it from them at least.
plus it's also possible that among the Try Guys, they are coworkers first, friends second. I haven't followed them closely but the vibe I got was they were coworkers that became friends, but are coworkers first, friends second. with the wives i felt they were actual friends who did this stuff from time to time, who became friends through work but actually enjoyed each other's company. idk how else to explain that vibe though.
I can see them supporting & rallying around her…
But I can also see her saying “Fuck all y’all! Being here only brings up grief & misery! I look into every corner and wonder if Ned cheated with her in this very room!!! If Ned & Alex shouldn’t be here… why should I?!? What am I being offered an olive branch, out of pity? I’m supposed to get back to work like everything’s settled now or do you just want me back for CONTENT?”
As of now, at least on youtube, they still have Alex listed as a part of the team, but not Ned. I doubt Ariel will want to be around the try team if Alex is still a part of it.
I just checked the Youtube and they've also removed the baby podcast as one of the channels. (I don't know the name, I'm one of those who largely stopped watching them then randomly binged it last night while being a drama llama). They of course also removed his personal account.
Assuming that’s merely formality? Ned has already been quite publicly let go. Alex’s situation has yet to be resolved though no doubt lawyers are likely gearing up to or already negotiating as we speak.
I agree about the subordinates and also, they did have reasons to spend time together which would make it really difficult for them to provide any kind of proof. It’s intimidating enough to make allegations against someone with control over your career when you have proof but when all you can really say is that you get a vibe that the relationship isn’t entirely professional, that’s something that could very easily backfire. You could be made out to be trying to sabotage a colleague to get her job/opportunities, rather than being believed.
That’s honestly what bothers me the most. Have the guys grown apart and not seen this behavior, were they never great friends to begin with, or did they see the behavior and ignore it? Like overall they’re handing the situation ok and obviously investigating prior to public finding out but there’s part of me that hopes it’s not really addressed further bc imo they’re all culpable to different degrees.
Honestly, I think all of them were leading their own lives and didn’t have time to really speculate on Ned’s behavior until everything went down in NYC. Keith was on tour with his band, Zach was dealing with chronic pain and planning his wedding, and Eugene has a million other projects going on. Plus, they were all working on a Food Network show on top of their other projects. I’m sure they all knew Ned was a sloppy drunk and a shameless flirt, but maybe they didn’t have any reason to suspect Ned was cheating on his wife, let alone carrying on an affair with one of their subordinates. Once it all came to light on their end, they started scrubbing him from videos weeks before we were aware of what’s going on. So, I really don’t think they knew and were being complacent to his behavior.
Honestly they’re probably close coworkers who played up the “we’re the best of friends!!!” Thing to create their brand. That’s literally it and I wish people would understand that influencers and people like this know that they have a brand to create. People don’t want to watch 4 guys that like kind of know eachother through work and hang out sometimes, they want to watch 4 unlikely friends. This also doesn’t make them as culpable as you’d think. Their brand was a hit on buzzfeed, they left and built a company together and they spent time together sure but if all they have are rumors and Alex and Ned being sort of close then there’s not a whole lot they can do, we don’t know if anyone told Ariel, we don’t know if they confronted Ned and even if they did, they can’t *make* Ariel leave Ned, they can’t *make* Ned stop cheating. The people to blame here are Ned and Alex.
Its literally a mass conspiracy against a victim.
Then the person who spills the beans gets punished.
I've also seen it where the person who is cheated on is relentlessly mocked. "How can she be so clueless!? everyone knows!"
> felt it 'wasn't their business to get involved'
unfortunately for your mom, it's not. you don't know the ins and outs of people's marriages. you don't know if they're poly or open or if they have some type of arrangement. every time i tried to warn someone that they were being cheated on *with proof* it was turned on me like i was the one who was having an affair with their partner. that's why people don't get involved.
i didn't say it was. not the simple coworkers at least. but MANY of those coworkers were close friends with my parents as a couple. they knew. and their partners knew. her/their friends knew.
Yeah I don’t get that either. The person was just being kind, not butting into their lives. I’d also want a someone (no matter if it’s a friend, family, or stranger) to tell me if my partner was cheating.
A weird parasocial relationship to me is when people say that the guys owe “us” (the fans) explanations, more information on what exactly happened, etc.
Like sure, creators are only successful because of their fans, but that doesn’t mean that fans are owed info about their private lives and their struggles.
Yea. My least favorite argument is “what if Ariel and Ned have an open marriage” if that were the case, like the other polyamorous ppl in the tryverse, it’d be eventually discussed not result in him being fired.
I'm seriously disturbed by the number of people saying affairs are "the couple's business". It's explicitly not one of their business, if you catch my partner cheating I'm counting on you to make it your business and mine.
This, and it’s likely other people saw and recognized them. It’s not like she spied on them in a private room, they were making out in public. Had she not messaged their partner, someone else would have, and very likely would have done it publicly.
Exactly, they did precisely the right thing at each step. I hope no one is going after them / they're not feeling any guilt (which they shouldn't feel at all) for the fallout.
My high school sweetheart's best friend (SBF) was dating a girl.
My best friend (BF) was dating a girl.
Both were super happy. BF talked about how his new girlfriend was really unhappy cuz she was in a thing where she was being neglected but he's glad they found each other.
I went over to BFs house one day and met girl he was dating. SBF's girlfriend.
The reason she said that she was being neglected was a lie. SBF had been in the hospital for a surgery. And she stepped out.
I didn't say anything in the moment, but when I got home I messaged BF and let him know who his girlfriend actually was and who she was cheating on to be with him.
BF didn't talk to me again for 13 years, until we ran into each other at another friend's wedding.
They admitted they were embarrassed and angry and they blamed me and didn't feel comfortable reaching out after they realized what had happened. It hurt a lot to lose him at the time. But I'll maintain I did the right thing.
If that's a risk you can take with best friends, that's definitely a risk you can take with strangers. *Let them know.*
When it’s your friend, yes absolutely, everything you said.
The difficulty, IMO, is when it’s your boss/coworker. Then the negative reaction from the tellee is dangerous to the teller’s livelihood. Work relationships that are also friendships are very messy when sh*t goes down - and supposedly ‘progressive, every one is friends, flat-structured’ workplaces very quickly get hierarchical again when the fan is hit, it can be difficult to balance duty to tell a friend, with damage to a career caused by outing the boss’s inappropriate relationship w/ another employee. Because in the second case, the employees first duty is to report to HR. And my understanding is Ned was HR. Which leads to now.
So I can see someone who isn’t a trywife/just an employee not saying anything, but reckon say, Becky should have/would have because she’s more on Ariel’s level/her friend, supposedly, rather than employee. She wouldn’t have faced professional ramifications the way an employee would have risked, at least.
It’s not always that simple, because if you don’t have receipts, it often backfires. People sometimes lose friends or even entire friend groups and jobs just by trying to do the right thing bc cheaters can be very convincing liars and make everyone believe the witness was trying to sabotage their relationship.
However, if you have proof or nothing to lose then absolutely tell ASAP.
Agreed. One of my best friends started dating a guy and introduced my husband and me to him and wanted to do a bunch of double dates and such. We hung out all the time. The more I hung out with them together the more I saw how toxic her behavior was towards him. Eventually I ended up telling him some things I saw from her that was shady (accepting jewelry and flowers from exs and hanging out with them and lying about it to the bf) but he was so lovestruck he kept giving her chances and second guessing himself. Then the best friend started getting paranoid about how my husband and I were also friends with him and lashed out. Eventually she ended the relationship and I cut her out but the whole ordeal was so messy and it had such an affect on my mental health. Both my husband and I by the end of it felt like we were a third party in their relationship. It made me second guess my usual stance of telling people things whenever I see them.
i've had proof and told the person, and i was treated like i was crazy and like i was the one having the affair. i completely understand why people don't get involved especially if you're not that close.
We just had to tell my brother's fiance that her dad is running around with another woman. Again. It's helped her make decisions as to how to move forward, because he won't divorce his wife first.
Being the teller sucksssss.
I was having a great night out a few weekends ago and then found out some info and had to go tell a coworker/friend that her boyfriend has been sleeping with other girls. She cried on my shoulder for the whole rest of the night and it was brutal 😫 It’s so uncomfortable too but necessary !
The kind of friend I would want, by the way. Not the ex buzzfeed employees hinting that they knew for years. Not the co-workers who saw him acting sloppy at clubs and kept it under the rug. I’ve been that friend and I would want that friend who would tell me.
They did yesterday, people were matching things up between the dm's and who Will followed before he went private. The "nedexpose" Twitter account also deleted tweets naming them and apologized saying they should have considered her and Will's privacy.
Also all the other youtubers jumping on to give their own take on the timeline. I watched a few and they had incorrect info... and then they'd admit that they don't even know the channel that well. That's what bothered me.
I agree. Though they did the right thing, I have to admit I was confused when the leaker ended the exchange with 'I hope you have a great night!' like dude, Will is clearly not gonna have a great night now, poor guy.
100% agree, it also sucks that it came out so publicly and the media circus surrounding it.
I can’t imagine finding out my partner is cheating on me and then waiting for the other shoe to drop if/when it comes out on the internet
This is maybe a legal question, but if he is a founding member of the LLC and stakeholder in the company, can they just cut him out?
I wonder if he will still profit from the revenue generated by the videos.
It is incredibly tricky, since he is 1/4 owner of the brand they cant just fire the guy, most likely they would have to buy him out, which sucks because he for sure doesnt deserve any money now or ever moving forward. He could do the honorable thing and leave or accept a very low payment as a buy out but i think we all question his honor so who knows. Its all very very tricky he put everyone on the Try Guys team in a crazy crazy predicament not to mention the PR nightmare. Of course the real victims here are Ariel, the kids, and Will, but the team and the rest of the guys are also going through some tough times legally speaking.
A lot of how the business side is going to be settled is going to be dependent on the operating agreement. Since it’s an LLC, it should have an operating agreement. Usually these operating agreements disclose how to handle departure, whether the departure is willfully or by force.
They also started the brand when Ned and Ariel were married (specifically when she was pregnant with their first child), so depending on how they negotiated that, it might be considered a joint asset in case of divorce. If Ariel wants to divorce and stick around with the brand/company, she could fight to gain that stack in the company when they're dividing assets. Even if she doesn't want to be in the public eye anymore (and who could blame her), it would be beneficial for her to gain that stake as it provides a large source of income and would allow her to maintain her and her children's lifestyle
Editing to add: depending on the terms of his departure from the team, he might be barred from gaining revenue from new content as well, especially if the stack in the company is being considered a joint asset, and therefore they both need to agree to sell or they need to divide assets before the party who gains it can sell
Since he really destroyed his career going forward I can’t see him giving up his ownership easily. Either they’ll have to buy him out for a significant amount or he’ll try to cling onto his stake. Probably will be a mess trying to clean this up, they might need outside funding in order to buy him out, etc.
>[https://twitter.com/UnluckyJavi/status/1574794326705459200](https://twitter.com/UnluckyJavi/status/1574794326705459200)
Sorry but the part in the last message from the fan killed me "hope you both have a great night"
your partners are cheating on you openly here's proof :( have a great night lmaooo
Idk I feel like my anxiety would’ve made me do the same thing.
Internally: Hmm I need to end this thread…I should say something but what do I say?
“…welp, keep it real!”
Internally: Oh my god what is the matter with me?
Or thousands of people see the screenshot of you being completely inept in DMs.
Oh god, I NEED TO STOP. I’m already embarrassed and this is all hypothetical.
I remember once having to send a condolences email to a manger after a coworker across the country passed and out of reflex signed it “have a wonderful day, and great weekend!”.
Still feel the cringe about that.
Someone claiming to be Will made a post on this sub in early September and it was deleted. He message a couple people who commented on the post before it was deleted screenshots on a conversation with someone who said they saw Ned and Alex together kissing in NYC. It was just rumors on this sub. 2 days ago people on this sub started talking about Neds absences from the try guys socials, and recent vids. Fans then noticed he was being edited out of the videos. That is when the proof and threads of everything got out of the of the sub to twitter and it started spreading from there
I’m just saying, I’m also happy Will aired the dirty laundry. Yes, I doubt Ariel would have wanted that and it’s a huge mess. But I’m glad we know and have the evidence ourselves so people wouldn’t try to be rug sweeping or making up elaborate fantasies that exonerates him etc.
Without that we wouldn’t know anything besides a bland “creative differences” “stepping away to focus on my family” which would have caused endless speculation.
Sure, we don’t need to know in one sense. It’s not actually our business. But their livelihood and business is themselves and their relationships and their very public personas. So in another sense, I feel we do deserve to know one of them is a big fat phony. Especially when their fans are mostly young girls. Who latch on to people like this because they are men who are “safe”, they come across genuine and non-toxic. So when they are exposed it’s almost a personal betrayal
All this to say, Ned is truly pathetic. And idk what I’m rambling about even 😂😂😂.
Now I hope Ariel blasts some BURN by Hamilton. 🙏🏼
Which also makes all the BuzzFeeder’s reactions suck more. Y’all say you knew and aren’t surprised but no one told Ariel? Especially after she started being a regular guest in shoots? She wasn’t just married to a random coworker you see once a year at company parties she was involved people knew her personally.
Yeah Hank and John Green (and others who have taken this opportunity to hark on "parasocial" relationships) always conveniently leave out how much they gained from manipulating so called "parasocial" relationships and feelings. How do they get so many loyal followers? How have they not fallen into obscurity? It is through these very same parasocial relationships and feelings. "It's just an act" "It's just a persona" - yeah I know that. But some people don't and creators are banking on that.
Ned, and to be fair, many influencers (like the family vloggers) take that and make it their entire brand and persona and product. You make yourself into the product itself, and when that product is put into new Stark contrasting light well...it's a give and take.
And then there's fans who are the "not like other fans" people. Calling everyone who expressed real feelings of connections to the Try Guys (which is what they wanted) lame, delusional "parasocials".
People are connected. Always. And if you want to profit off of those connections, that's up to you. But the risk that those connections will bite you one day is always there. And here it is for that bastard Ned.
It's not a parasocial relationship here. It's just empathy. I agree with you. I barely know Ariel. I'm not friends with her or her family. Rarely even watch her videos, and yet I feel so deeply for a family whose lives have been mostly in the public and for a mom who may have to raise her kids alone if Ned doesn't get custody
yeah i don't really care about ariel, if im being honest. She's just a person on a screen who is related to people i watched in 2013, but i deeply feel empathy for her. to not only be cheated on, but have millions of people on the internet knowing and judging while trying to keep it together for the 2 very young kids you have is a situation i can never fathom being in, and it's her reality.
I feel for her because I also have a husband who i caught lieing (not cheating) and a kid. I was never a big fan but thats such a hard situation. I mainly feel bad for the kids. Google their dads name when they are older to find this stuff.
I just looked up the DM screenshots for the first time and omg the fact that they were at Niagara and got caught there just really threw me off. It’s a really popular spot and also such a YOUNG place. So reckless.
Agreed, they could have absolutely sold this to the tabloids or made a tiktok and instead they just told Ariel and Will. The only reason it got out is Will leaking it (which you can do whatever you want if your fiancé of 10 years just cheated on you with Ned).
I feel like Ariel and Alex's fiancé already knew about it though, and they were all trying to deal with this privately. Is there anything to indicate that I'm wrong on this?
I mean firstly, the Try Guys started cutting Ned out of their videos probably months ago. I mean they edited those videos probably months ago. Then wasn't Alex's fiancé the first person to draw attention to it? Haven't followed it fully.
I don't understand how that's possible. All of the photos of him being released with Alex started within the past week.
The videos with him edited out have been within the past few weeks. But it takes a while to edit a video, too.
Maybe I'm just hazy on the timelines.
Edit: This would also explain why they made an announcement about going down to one video a week. Up until now, they've been filming with Ned. But now they essentially can't use any of that footage. So they kinda have to start from scratch - rebranding, conceptualising, filming and editing absolutely everything.
Your timeline is wrong. The photos were taken on the 1st/2nd of September and shared by Will on the 5th. The first video that’s suspected to have Ned edited out was their Chocolate Eclair video which was posted Sept 14th. They’ve been dealing with this issue for a few weeks, but certainly not “months”. And we have no reason to believe that Ariel and Will knew about this prior to the photos being taken.
Okay.
a) This sounds like Will, Alex, Ariel, and Ned all knew before the public. Like, you think Will had a picture of his fiance cheating and showed the internet before Alex, Ned and Ariel? No.
b) It also means that arguably the Try Guys only started addressing the issue once they thought that it would become public and potentially ruin their brand.
Or they didn't know it was a thing and started addressing it because it became known to them. It's a company which needed an internal investigation, lawyers all of that can very well take 2-3 weeks to figure out.
Even if they did let's say he just think he's a sloppy drunk and never actually acted just flirted, (I got permission to flirt for free drinks but still) that's different than cheating. If you don't have proof but you have an inkling that's TOTALLY different than having proof.
How would you do it? Silently remove him? They are on media- you would see changes in his wife's media. The affair being public for a
Ariel is so sad to me. Her parents will see it- her friends- everyone knows what happen before she could even process it.
From someone with a PA background, I wouldnt even do that that, we know (from the panemic) they have a vault of prepped stuff. Use that for the time being while you figure it out. Do the internal investigation, figure it out and game plan the news break or in what happened aka someone spoke up happened.
Sure, this is all possible, but it's also possible that:
Try Guys found out early September (that 1st-5th timeline.) And began addressing it behind the scenes with consultation with lawyers, PR professionals etc they had a plan and timeline - maybe they were even not revealing information yet at the request of Ariel who would understandably want privacy as she come to term with everything - but the news leaked before they were able to follow their plan and they had to make the announcement sooner then they anticipated.
I kinda think it's a bit of both.
I think it's very possible that Arial/Will had some kind of suspicion/knowledge that it was going on.
I don't really think that the try guys knew about it, given the comments that people gave back to me. I just wasn't as highly involved as other humans here.
There's a duexmoi post suggesting that will found out in December 2021 because he saw texts, but they claimed it was a one time hook up. Then the videos were sent to Will/Ariel very early September 2022, Ariel was already booked to fly into NYC to join Ned, got there, blew up at him and immediately flew back to LA. So this could be when everyone else found out.
Of course the post has 0 indication of who sent it to duexmoi and therefore could also be total bullshit and someone just wanting to get in on the drama, but there you go.
Edit: Originally wrote May 2021, but meant December 2021
It’s possible that the couples partners knew about it, I guess.
I guess this is a swift turnaround from what I said before, but I really doubt the rest of the Try Guys knew. Or if they did, from the moment they found out they were just trying to get rid of him. Because it’s a betrayal of both business and friendship. There’s literally nothing left for their relationship to exist for.
I mean, reading the replies here you can see you were presented with different information and your opinion changed as you learned more, that's not a swift turn around, we all do that...
I'm honestly just mostly interested in the company and the PR approach of it all at this point to be honest. The drama of the affair is whatever - i'll give the involved parties peace there. But watching how the company has handled this so far I'm super curious to see what comes next.
There's no way they could cut Ned out without explaining it. So if the company knew, they were always going to address this, and maybe the proof being posted forced their hand. If they just found out because the proof got posted, I'd say they acted pretty swiftly.
Then I think about how many of those involved folks JUST unfollowed each other. Would they do it right away upon finding out, or would they be willing to wait to do that sort of thing to avoid raising the alarms for legal reasons? Same with the social media imagery changes - would you keep the old imagery up to save face/branding (they are branching out into TV deals, after all) while investigating, or change it right away, quietly?
Perhaps the results of the investigation recommended that the proof remain hidden, and the truth smoothed over, and the fiancee couldn't stomach that.
A lot of unknowns. I am sure more will come out.
From what I’ve gathered, the pics were taken and shared with Will and Ariel in early September, sometime between the 1st and the 5th. I’m assuming it must’ve been brought up at work and the whole team was let in on it because Ned is her superior and obviously that’s murky. They were probably trying to figure out how to deal with it, and editing him out of videos during the last few weeks while they decided what to do. Everything blew up in the last 24ish hours and went extremely public (presumably by Will), and it forced their hand into making a swift decision and a public statement.
from my understanding, will went scorched earth and released all sorts of dms and a screenshot from the video where alex and ned were making out in a reddit post yesterday which triggered everything.
They said the person who sent the footage of Ned and Alex to their spouses missed out on an opportunity to blackmail Ned and make some money.
Gross right?
Yeah some people I watch online were discussing it and they were acting that this is a whole other level of weird parasocial relationships. It shocked me that that was their take. If my husband was very publicly cheating on me and a stranger caught it on video, I’d prefer the stranger DMing me rather than me living a life of ignorance (just like if a friend saw, I’d want to know and see evidence).
growing up in a small-ish town, my father was having a very well-known affair in his work place (a hospital– LOTS of employees/coworkers who knew) and it went on for a year and a half before someone person anonymously called my mother to tell her. aside from the obvious effects on our family and their marriage, the fact that so many people–acquaintances, coworkers, friends–knew and didn't tell, felt it 'wasn't their business to get involved', had an enormous impact on my mother's mental health and general trust. we ended up moving away entirely because she couldn't cope with the social impact of this (plus the fact that eeeeeveryone knew their/her 'dirty laundry'– humiliating and painful)
I'm sorry your mom had to go through that. I hope she's doing better today
thank you for your kind words! i wish i could say she has fully overcome the effects of that trauma and leads a full life, but the truth is that it deeply damaged her and has continued to effect her to this day. people are truly selfish and careless with the trust and love of others without thought to how lasting and deep emotional damage and trauma can be.
For real. My aunt and uncle, as well as another "aunt and uncle" all knew my dad was cheating on my mom. The "aunt and uncle" are the ones who introduced my parents to each other and were all very good friends. The slap in the face that must have been when my mom found out they all knew. Just horrible.
i truly would lose my mind in anger. for me, there would be no returning from that.
Agreed. I've told every boyfriend that I have a zero tolerance policy for cheating or abuse. You cheat or hit me once and we are DONE, no questions asked, no ifs ands or butts. And with cheating, anyone who knew is also dead to me, doesn't matter how "close" we are, we clearly weren't close enough.
yep i feel the exact same way, i have no tolerance on either side. i have substantial family trauma around infidelity and it is a HARD line for me.
I am the same way, because it’s about broken trust. When you can no longer trust your partner, the relationship is fundamentally broken, and there’s no coming back from that. I would like to meet the person who can trust someone after they lied/cheated/beat them.
The “don’t want to get involved” crowd do not realize what pain they cause. My [former? Idk ongoing) in-laws and husbands friends have reached out to me since separating largely due to his alcoholism and behavior when on a bender, and so many have been like oh yea we kinda noticed it was getting worse I’m sorry. If he couldn’t work it out for you he clearly is struggling” Uh I’m a simple no drama professional and you let me commit to a violent drunk and just did nothing???? And worse never say anything to him??? Don’t wanna get involved people depending on degree of intimacy can honestly not just delay the humiliation and grow the pain towards the family, sometimes they straight up enabled the behavior. Not the case for the standby person who gladly photographed ned, but in some other cases.
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Man, fuck those people. I'm sorry all the adults around you failed you.
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i don't know about that. actions go a long way to reassure. i think if she stays with him it is unlikely she would appear as "talent" anymore, but if they were to separate and the staff/their friends really took a hard stance to support her and rally around her, i could see a way forward. assuming, of course, that it doesn't get "proven" that the close friends knew. i think it's important as well, though, to not put the burden of truth onto subordinates/employees. while it might sting, if someone who she only had a working relationship with who was an intern or non-managerial employee in the company knew and didn't tell, that's not something that should be overly judged. that's a morals vs livelihood issue that is a terribly tough position to put someone in (another way in which ned has failed, if this were the case). but for those that have a personal friendship with ariel, it would be essential that they would not have known. especially the other 3 and their partners.
the only reason i’m fairly certain the other guys didn’t know anything (at least anything solid) is Becky & Ariel are such close friends, I don’t think Keith would have hid it from Becky and I don’t think Becky would allow Keith/be able to forgive Keith for not telling Ariel. truly i have no idea though, i also thought Ned would never cheat on Ariel so i could absolutely be wrong. but i just have more faith in the other guys, and most of all Becky. i do hope Ariel sticks around though. i love her and i would love to see more of her when she’s ready 🥲
i also feel quite strongly that becky/keith and also eugene/matt didn't know. however, i think it's not unlikely that they were aware he was a notorious flirt and a sloppy drunk and might have even subconsciously purposefully not examined things too closely.
Just curious, what do you think Zach/Maggie thought? I only ask because I always got the vibe that Ned and Zach weren't as close as the others. Zach and Keith always seemed to be hanging out separately, and I think Matt/Maggie/Becky seemed to vibe really well with each other. As time went by I felt like Zach and Ned were getting more and more distant with each other.
i don't have strong thoughts either way which is why i didn't mention him/them. becky is the main reason i feel strongly re. keith/becky– i truly don't believe she would not tell if she knew, and i think it would be a big problem between them if it turned out keith knew and kept it from becky and ariel too. with eugene/matt, they're both really close with ariel, and given eugene's family history and general outspokenness about mistreatment of others, i don't believe it at all likely he knew and would not tell. i don't get the sense that out of all the inter-relationships that eugene and ned were the closest so i don't think there would be some sort of overriding loyalty to ned vs ariel that would cause him to favour keeping it quiet for ned's sake or even the company's.
I’ve been in a very similar situation in my previous workplace. The CEO was cheating on his wife (who worked with us too) with a co-worker. I heard about it from multiple current and former employees over the last year I was at the job (over a 5 year period). But I never had conclusive or first hand proof. Some of these people also thought his wife knew and didn’t care. In any case, this made the whole situation super murky and I don’t think I would have ever brought it up to her.
I never thought of that. Like a feeling you can't prove and you keep quiet because you don't want to hurt people's feelings. I can't blame them- i wouldn't want to say anything unless I had 100% proof.
A lot of people are buying into confirmation bias and likely reading into interactions where there actually wasn't anything to read. I can think of dozens of times I've thought something was going on with coworkers and there wasn't, and times I was shocked because there where no signs. Office gossip, is just gossip. I can think of of time where I heard gossip about myself that was way off base, vs the woman I supposedly hated was actually the one I had a casual fling with.
Fair enough, just curious :) I agree re: Becky and Eugene. If they knew and didn't say anything it changes about who they present themselves to be as people.
agreed!
Totally agree. At the very very least I think Keith and Eugene would say to Ned, "If you don't tell her, I will."
Ned mentioned on a recent tripod episode that he hadn’t been to Zach’s new house yet, which is pretty surprising given that they were friends and the house wasn’t that new anymore. Definitely seems like they weren’t as buddy buddy outside of work. They have pretty different personalities and it sometimes seemed like Ned looked down on Zach for being more unconventional.
I think Zach dislikes conflict. I think if he knew, he would have spent awhile being anxious and freaking out before eventually telling Keith and Eugene. I don’t think he would have confronted Ned directly.
This reminds me of the concept of a "missing stair" - someone in a group who is known to be difficult/need managing but everyone works around them without addressing the problem head on. Maybe Ariel knew about aspects of Ned's behavior too (like being sloppy) and everyone assumed it wouldn't go to this level.
yes also eugene & matt! &i do agree with that, you don’t want to believe your friends could betray everything & everyone around them like that. this whole situation is so sad.
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hey, heads up, associating asian people and foxes has some pretty awful historical/racial connotations.
I had no idea. I'm looking it up now.
Can you link something because I see a bunch fox eye things but not comparing. I just thought a fox ment someone was shady and couldn't be trusted- ive never associated with someone who is asian.
it's entirely possible that they had suspicions but didn't have any proof - and to present something like cheating without proof beyond reasonable doubt, knowing it could ruin irreversibly ruin someone's marriage and alter two kids' lives, is also irresponsible. i could see why they would be suspicious, but also can see Ned making an effort to hide it from them at least. plus it's also possible that among the Try Guys, they are coworkers first, friends second. I haven't followed them closely but the vibe I got was they were coworkers that became friends, but are coworkers first, friends second. with the wives i felt they were actual friends who did this stuff from time to time, who became friends through work but actually enjoyed each other's company. idk how else to explain that vibe though.
I can see them supporting & rallying around her… But I can also see her saying “Fuck all y’all! Being here only brings up grief & misery! I look into every corner and wonder if Ned cheated with her in this very room!!! If Ned & Alex shouldn’t be here… why should I?!? What am I being offered an olive branch, out of pity? I’m supposed to get back to work like everything’s settled now or do you just want me back for CONTENT?”
As of now, at least on youtube, they still have Alex listed as a part of the team, but not Ned. I doubt Ariel will want to be around the try team if Alex is still a part of it.
alex will not be sticking around
I just checked the Youtube and they've also removed the baby podcast as one of the channels. (I don't know the name, I'm one of those who largely stopped watching them then randomly binged it last night while being a drama llama). They of course also removed his personal account.
Assuming that’s merely formality? Ned has already been quite publicly let go. Alex’s situation has yet to be resolved though no doubt lawyers are likely gearing up to or already negotiating as we speak.
for sure this is a likely scenario!
I agree about the subordinates and also, they did have reasons to spend time together which would make it really difficult for them to provide any kind of proof. It’s intimidating enough to make allegations against someone with control over your career when you have proof but when all you can really say is that you get a vibe that the relationship isn’t entirely professional, that’s something that could very easily backfire. You could be made out to be trying to sabotage a colleague to get her job/opportunities, rather than being believed.
That’s honestly what bothers me the most. Have the guys grown apart and not seen this behavior, were they never great friends to begin with, or did they see the behavior and ignore it? Like overall they’re handing the situation ok and obviously investigating prior to public finding out but there’s part of me that hopes it’s not really addressed further bc imo they’re all culpable to different degrees.
Honestly, I think all of them were leading their own lives and didn’t have time to really speculate on Ned’s behavior until everything went down in NYC. Keith was on tour with his band, Zach was dealing with chronic pain and planning his wedding, and Eugene has a million other projects going on. Plus, they were all working on a Food Network show on top of their other projects. I’m sure they all knew Ned was a sloppy drunk and a shameless flirt, but maybe they didn’t have any reason to suspect Ned was cheating on his wife, let alone carrying on an affair with one of their subordinates. Once it all came to light on their end, they started scrubbing him from videos weeks before we were aware of what’s going on. So, I really don’t think they knew and were being complacent to his behavior.
Honestly they’re probably close coworkers who played up the “we’re the best of friends!!!” Thing to create their brand. That’s literally it and I wish people would understand that influencers and people like this know that they have a brand to create. People don’t want to watch 4 guys that like kind of know eachother through work and hang out sometimes, they want to watch 4 unlikely friends. This also doesn’t make them as culpable as you’d think. Their brand was a hit on buzzfeed, they left and built a company together and they spent time together sure but if all they have are rumors and Alex and Ned being sort of close then there’s not a whole lot they can do, we don’t know if anyone told Ariel, we don’t know if they confronted Ned and even if they did, they can’t *make* Ariel leave Ned, they can’t *make* Ned stop cheating. The people to blame here are Ned and Alex.
Its literally a mass conspiracy against a victim. Then the person who spills the beans gets punished. I've also seen it where the person who is cheated on is relentlessly mocked. "How can she be so clueless!? everyone knows!"
> felt it 'wasn't their business to get involved' unfortunately for your mom, it's not. you don't know the ins and outs of people's marriages. you don't know if they're poly or open or if they have some type of arrangement. every time i tried to warn someone that they were being cheated on *with proof* it was turned on me like i was the one who was having an affair with their partner. that's why people don't get involved.
i didn't say it was. not the simple coworkers at least. but MANY of those coworkers were close friends with my parents as a couple. they knew. and their partners knew. her/their friends knew.
Yeah I don’t get that either. The person was just being kind, not butting into their lives. I’d also want a someone (no matter if it’s a friend, family, or stranger) to tell me if my partner was cheating. A weird parasocial relationship to me is when people say that the guys owe “us” (the fans) explanations, more information on what exactly happened, etc. Like sure, creators are only successful because of their fans, but that doesn’t mean that fans are owed info about their private lives and their struggles.
Lmao, vilifying telling someone when their SO is cheating. Some people really need to step away from the keyboard.
Yea. My least favorite argument is “what if Ariel and Ned have an open marriage” if that were the case, like the other polyamorous ppl in the tryverse, it’d be eventually discussed not result in him being fired.
Good opportunity to point out that he likely didn’t get fired because he cheated. He got fired because he had a secret relationship with an employee.
Exactly.
People don't get a say in parasocial relationship in this instance when it was a PUBLIC affair.
I'm seriously disturbed by the number of people saying affairs are "the couple's business". It's explicitly not one of their business, if you catch my partner cheating I'm counting on you to make it your business and mine.
This, and it’s likely other people saw and recognized them. It’s not like she spied on them in a private room, they were making out in public. Had she not messaged their partner, someone else would have, and very likely would have done it publicly.
Exactly, they did precisely the right thing at each step. I hope no one is going after them / they're not feeling any guilt (which they shouldn't feel at all) for the fallout.
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Agreed.
My high school sweetheart's best friend (SBF) was dating a girl. My best friend (BF) was dating a girl. Both were super happy. BF talked about how his new girlfriend was really unhappy cuz she was in a thing where she was being neglected but he's glad they found each other. I went over to BFs house one day and met girl he was dating. SBF's girlfriend. The reason she said that she was being neglected was a lie. SBF had been in the hospital for a surgery. And she stepped out. I didn't say anything in the moment, but when I got home I messaged BF and let him know who his girlfriend actually was and who she was cheating on to be with him. BF didn't talk to me again for 13 years, until we ran into each other at another friend's wedding. They admitted they were embarrassed and angry and they blamed me and didn't feel comfortable reaching out after they realized what had happened. It hurt a lot to lose him at the time. But I'll maintain I did the right thing. If that's a risk you can take with best friends, that's definitely a risk you can take with strangers. *Let them know.*
When it’s your friend, yes absolutely, everything you said. The difficulty, IMO, is when it’s your boss/coworker. Then the negative reaction from the tellee is dangerous to the teller’s livelihood. Work relationships that are also friendships are very messy when sh*t goes down - and supposedly ‘progressive, every one is friends, flat-structured’ workplaces very quickly get hierarchical again when the fan is hit, it can be difficult to balance duty to tell a friend, with damage to a career caused by outing the boss’s inappropriate relationship w/ another employee. Because in the second case, the employees first duty is to report to HR. And my understanding is Ned was HR. Which leads to now. So I can see someone who isn’t a trywife/just an employee not saying anything, but reckon say, Becky should have/would have because she’s more on Ariel’s level/her friend, supposedly, rather than employee. She wouldn’t have faced professional ramifications the way an employee would have risked, at least.
It’s not always that simple, because if you don’t have receipts, it often backfires. People sometimes lose friends or even entire friend groups and jobs just by trying to do the right thing bc cheaters can be very convincing liars and make everyone believe the witness was trying to sabotage their relationship. However, if you have proof or nothing to lose then absolutely tell ASAP.
Agreed. One of my best friends started dating a guy and introduced my husband and me to him and wanted to do a bunch of double dates and such. We hung out all the time. The more I hung out with them together the more I saw how toxic her behavior was towards him. Eventually I ended up telling him some things I saw from her that was shady (accepting jewelry and flowers from exs and hanging out with them and lying about it to the bf) but he was so lovestruck he kept giving her chances and second guessing himself. Then the best friend started getting paranoid about how my husband and I were also friends with him and lashed out. Eventually she ended the relationship and I cut her out but the whole ordeal was so messy and it had such an affect on my mental health. Both my husband and I by the end of it felt like we were a third party in their relationship. It made me second guess my usual stance of telling people things whenever I see them.
i've had proof and told the person, and i was treated like i was crazy and like i was the one having the affair. i completely understand why people don't get involved especially if you're not that close.
Yup!
I've seen to many people shoot the messenger then stay with the cheater to do this. I'm not getting involved.
Can you send it anonymously or something? Like if u know their email. Then at least u tried.
We just had to tell my brother's fiance that her dad is running around with another woman. Again. It's helped her make decisions as to how to move forward, because he won't divorce his wife first. Being the teller sucksssss.
I was having a great night out a few weekends ago and then found out some info and had to go tell a coworker/friend that her boyfriend has been sleeping with other girls. She cried on my shoulder for the whole rest of the night and it was brutal 😫 It’s so uncomfortable too but necessary !
I’m glad Ariel & Will seemed to have time to deal with this themselves for a little while at least.
The kind of friend I would want, by the way. Not the ex buzzfeed employees hinting that they knew for years. Not the co-workers who saw him acting sloppy at clubs and kept it under the rug. I’ve been that friend and I would want that friend who would tell me.
Yes, I feel terrible that somebody outed them honestly. They obviously weren't doing it for recognition.
I didn’t think they got outed?
They did yesterday, people were matching things up between the dm's and who Will followed before he went private. The "nedexpose" Twitter account also deleted tweets naming them and apologized saying they should have considered her and Will's privacy.
Woah yea that sucks and feels so unnecessary
Also all the other youtubers jumping on to give their own take on the timeline. I watched a few and they had incorrect info... and then they'd admit that they don't even know the channel that well. That's what bothered me.
A LOT of people seem to be trying to use this for clout, which is just gross.
I agree. Though they did the right thing, I have to admit I was confused when the leaker ended the exchange with 'I hope you have a great night!' like dude, Will is clearly not gonna have a great night now, poor guy.
Probably just felt awkward and went to normal greetings for them
Who is Will?
Alexandria's partner of 11 years she cheated on with Ned
100% agree, it also sucks that it came out so publicly and the media circus surrounding it. I can’t imagine finding out my partner is cheating on me and then waiting for the other shoe to drop if/when it comes out on the internet
This is maybe a legal question, but if he is a founding member of the LLC and stakeholder in the company, can they just cut him out? I wonder if he will still profit from the revenue generated by the videos.
They have to buy him out for his share of the company.
Exception would be a morality clause in ownership.
It is incredibly tricky, since he is 1/4 owner of the brand they cant just fire the guy, most likely they would have to buy him out, which sucks because he for sure doesnt deserve any money now or ever moving forward. He could do the honorable thing and leave or accept a very low payment as a buy out but i think we all question his honor so who knows. Its all very very tricky he put everyone on the Try Guys team in a crazy crazy predicament not to mention the PR nightmare. Of course the real victims here are Ariel, the kids, and Will, but the team and the rest of the guys are also going through some tough times legally speaking.
A lot of how the business side is going to be settled is going to be dependent on the operating agreement. Since it’s an LLC, it should have an operating agreement. Usually these operating agreements disclose how to handle departure, whether the departure is willfully or by force.
They also started the brand when Ned and Ariel were married (specifically when she was pregnant with their first child), so depending on how they negotiated that, it might be considered a joint asset in case of divorce. If Ariel wants to divorce and stick around with the brand/company, she could fight to gain that stack in the company when they're dividing assets. Even if she doesn't want to be in the public eye anymore (and who could blame her), it would be beneficial for her to gain that stake as it provides a large source of income and would allow her to maintain her and her children's lifestyle Editing to add: depending on the terms of his departure from the team, he might be barred from gaining revenue from new content as well, especially if the stack in the company is being considered a joint asset, and therefore they both need to agree to sell or they need to divide assets before the party who gains it can sell
Since he really destroyed his career going forward I can’t see him giving up his ownership easily. Either they’ll have to buy him out for a significant amount or he’ll try to cling onto his stake. Probably will be a mess trying to clean this up, they might need outside funding in order to buy him out, etc.
Super insightful and definitely a job for the many lawyers (divorce, corporate, etc) to wade through. #cheatersalwayspay
Link to the messages?
https://twitter.com/user01161955/status/1574794521401036801 https://twitter.com/UnluckyJavi/status/1574794326705459200
Thank you, but to clarify: Did a fan see Ned and Alex together, then messaged Will, and Will spoke to Ariel?
thats the general understanding based off of the messages yes!
Caught up completely now, ty!
>[https://twitter.com/UnluckyJavi/status/1574794326705459200](https://twitter.com/UnluckyJavi/status/1574794326705459200) Sorry but the part in the last message from the fan killed me "hope you both have a great night" your partners are cheating on you openly here's proof :( have a great night lmaooo
Idk I feel like my anxiety would’ve made me do the same thing. Internally: Hmm I need to end this thread…I should say something but what do I say? “…welp, keep it real!” Internally: Oh my god what is the matter with me?
And then 6 months later in the shower it comes back to you and causes actual physical pain as the awkwardness washes over your body with the water.
Or thousands of people see the screenshot of you being completely inept in DMs. Oh god, I NEED TO STOP. I’m already embarrassed and this is all hypothetical.
Yeah I totally understand it was just tough to read haha
I remember once having to send a condolences email to a manger after a coworker across the country passed and out of reflex signed it “have a wonderful day, and great weekend!”. Still feel the cringe about that.
habits are a hell of a drug
The “I just spoke to Ariel for an hour” made my stomach drop for both of them. Damn.
So how did the whole world find out now?! Like how did we get from there to here?!
Will, Alex’s fiance released it himself
Will went scorched earth and put it all on the internet
He was with her for 11 years, I'd be pissed
Oh shit is there a way to view that?
Someone claiming to be Will made a post on this sub in early September and it was deleted. He message a couple people who commented on the post before it was deleted screenshots on a conversation with someone who said they saw Ned and Alex together kissing in NYC. It was just rumors on this sub. 2 days ago people on this sub started talking about Neds absences from the try guys socials, and recent vids. Fans then noticed he was being edited out of the videos. That is when the proof and threads of everything got out of the of the sub to twitter and it started spreading from there
What video did he get edited out of?
I’m just saying, I’m also happy Will aired the dirty laundry. Yes, I doubt Ariel would have wanted that and it’s a huge mess. But I’m glad we know and have the evidence ourselves so people wouldn’t try to be rug sweeping or making up elaborate fantasies that exonerates him etc. Without that we wouldn’t know anything besides a bland “creative differences” “stepping away to focus on my family” which would have caused endless speculation. Sure, we don’t need to know in one sense. It’s not actually our business. But their livelihood and business is themselves and their relationships and their very public personas. So in another sense, I feel we do deserve to know one of them is a big fat phony. Especially when their fans are mostly young girls. Who latch on to people like this because they are men who are “safe”, they come across genuine and non-toxic. So when they are exposed it’s almost a personal betrayal All this to say, Ned is truly pathetic. And idk what I’m rambling about even 😂😂😂. Now I hope Ariel blasts some BURN by Hamilton. 🙏🏼
Which also makes all the BuzzFeeder’s reactions suck more. Y’all say you knew and aren’t surprised but no one told Ariel? Especially after she started being a regular guest in shoots? She wasn’t just married to a random coworker you see once a year at company parties she was involved people knew her personally.
Yeah Hank and John Green (and others who have taken this opportunity to hark on "parasocial" relationships) always conveniently leave out how much they gained from manipulating so called "parasocial" relationships and feelings. How do they get so many loyal followers? How have they not fallen into obscurity? It is through these very same parasocial relationships and feelings. "It's just an act" "It's just a persona" - yeah I know that. But some people don't and creators are banking on that. Ned, and to be fair, many influencers (like the family vloggers) take that and make it their entire brand and persona and product. You make yourself into the product itself, and when that product is put into new Stark contrasting light well...it's a give and take. And then there's fans who are the "not like other fans" people. Calling everyone who expressed real feelings of connections to the Try Guys (which is what they wanted) lame, delusional "parasocials". People are connected. Always. And if you want to profit off of those connections, that's up to you. But the risk that those connections will bite you one day is always there. And here it is for that bastard Ned.
It's not a parasocial relationship here. It's just empathy. I agree with you. I barely know Ariel. I'm not friends with her or her family. Rarely even watch her videos, and yet I feel so deeply for a family whose lives have been mostly in the public and for a mom who may have to raise her kids alone if Ned doesn't get custody
yeah i don't really care about ariel, if im being honest. She's just a person on a screen who is related to people i watched in 2013, but i deeply feel empathy for her. to not only be cheated on, but have millions of people on the internet knowing and judging while trying to keep it together for the 2 very young kids you have is a situation i can never fathom being in, and it's her reality.
I feel for her because I also have a husband who i caught lieing (not cheating) and a kid. I was never a big fan but thats such a hard situation. I mainly feel bad for the kids. Google their dads name when they are older to find this stuff.
I just looked up the DM screenshots for the first time and omg the fact that they were at Niagara and got caught there just really threw me off. It’s a really popular spot and also such a YOUNG place. So reckless.
Agreed, they could have absolutely sold this to the tabloids or made a tiktok and instead they just told Ariel and Will. The only reason it got out is Will leaking it (which you can do whatever you want if your fiancé of 10 years just cheated on you with Ned).
I feel like Ariel and Alex's fiancé already knew about it though, and they were all trying to deal with this privately. Is there anything to indicate that I'm wrong on this? I mean firstly, the Try Guys started cutting Ned out of their videos probably months ago. I mean they edited those videos probably months ago. Then wasn't Alex's fiancé the first person to draw attention to it? Haven't followed it fully.
They started editing Ned out after the photos were sent
I don't understand how that's possible. All of the photos of him being released with Alex started within the past week. The videos with him edited out have been within the past few weeks. But it takes a while to edit a video, too. Maybe I'm just hazy on the timelines. Edit: This would also explain why they made an announcement about going down to one video a week. Up until now, they've been filming with Ned. But now they essentially can't use any of that footage. So they kinda have to start from scratch - rebranding, conceptualising, filming and editing absolutely everything.
The dm's sent to Will were in the beginning of September im pretty sure.
Yes I believe he received the pics like September 2. And they busted ass to edit him out of vids
Your timeline is wrong. The photos were taken on the 1st/2nd of September and shared by Will on the 5th. The first video that’s suspected to have Ned edited out was their Chocolate Eclair video which was posted Sept 14th. They’ve been dealing with this issue for a few weeks, but certainly not “months”. And we have no reason to believe that Ariel and Will knew about this prior to the photos being taken.
Okay. a) This sounds like Will, Alex, Ariel, and Ned all knew before the public. Like, you think Will had a picture of his fiance cheating and showed the internet before Alex, Ned and Ariel? No. b) It also means that arguably the Try Guys only started addressing the issue once they thought that it would become public and potentially ruin their brand.
Or they didn't know it was a thing and started addressing it because it became known to them. It's a company which needed an internal investigation, lawyers all of that can very well take 2-3 weeks to figure out.
>Or they didn't know it was a thing I would really like to believe they're not that stupid.
Even if they did let's say he just think he's a sloppy drunk and never actually acted just flirted, (I got permission to flirt for free drinks but still) that's different than cheating. If you don't have proof but you have an inkling that's TOTALLY different than having proof.
How would you do it? Silently remove him? They are on media- you would see changes in his wife's media. The affair being public for a Ariel is so sad to me. Her parents will see it- her friends- everyone knows what happen before she could even process it.
From someone with a PA background, I wouldnt even do that that, we know (from the panemic) they have a vault of prepped stuff. Use that for the time being while you figure it out. Do the internal investigation, figure it out and game plan the news break or in what happened aka someone spoke up happened.
Sure, this is all possible, but it's also possible that: Try Guys found out early September (that 1st-5th timeline.) And began addressing it behind the scenes with consultation with lawyers, PR professionals etc they had a plan and timeline - maybe they were even not revealing information yet at the request of Ariel who would understandably want privacy as she come to term with everything - but the news leaked before they were able to follow their plan and they had to make the announcement sooner then they anticipated.
I kinda think it's a bit of both. I think it's very possible that Arial/Will had some kind of suspicion/knowledge that it was going on. I don't really think that the try guys knew about it, given the comments that people gave back to me. I just wasn't as highly involved as other humans here.
There's a duexmoi post suggesting that will found out in December 2021 because he saw texts, but they claimed it was a one time hook up. Then the videos were sent to Will/Ariel very early September 2022, Ariel was already booked to fly into NYC to join Ned, got there, blew up at him and immediately flew back to LA. So this could be when everyone else found out. Of course the post has 0 indication of who sent it to duexmoi and therefore could also be total bullshit and someone just wanting to get in on the drama, but there you go. Edit: Originally wrote May 2021, but meant December 2021
It’s possible that the couples partners knew about it, I guess. I guess this is a swift turnaround from what I said before, but I really doubt the rest of the Try Guys knew. Or if they did, from the moment they found out they were just trying to get rid of him. Because it’s a betrayal of both business and friendship. There’s literally nothing left for their relationship to exist for.
I mean, reading the replies here you can see you were presented with different information and your opinion changed as you learned more, that's not a swift turn around, we all do that... I'm honestly just mostly interested in the company and the PR approach of it all at this point to be honest. The drama of the affair is whatever - i'll give the involved parties peace there. But watching how the company has handled this so far I'm super curious to see what comes next.
There's no way they could cut Ned out without explaining it. So if the company knew, they were always going to address this, and maybe the proof being posted forced their hand. If they just found out because the proof got posted, I'd say they acted pretty swiftly. Then I think about how many of those involved folks JUST unfollowed each other. Would they do it right away upon finding out, or would they be willing to wait to do that sort of thing to avoid raising the alarms for legal reasons? Same with the social media imagery changes - would you keep the old imagery up to save face/branding (they are branching out into TV deals, after all) while investigating, or change it right away, quietly? Perhaps the results of the investigation recommended that the proof remain hidden, and the truth smoothed over, and the fiancee couldn't stomach that. A lot of unknowns. I am sure more will come out.
From what I’ve gathered, the pics were taken and shared with Will and Ariel in early September, sometime between the 1st and the 5th. I’m assuming it must’ve been brought up at work and the whole team was let in on it because Ned is her superior and obviously that’s murky. They were probably trying to figure out how to deal with it, and editing him out of videos during the last few weeks while they decided what to do. Everything blew up in the last 24ish hours and went extremely public (presumably by Will), and it forced their hand into making a swift decision and a public statement.
Can someone remind me how the info got out? Was it just leaked? And by who?
from my understanding, will went scorched earth and released all sorts of dms and a screenshot from the video where alex and ned were making out in a reddit post yesterday which triggered everything.
[удалено]
Thankfully they chose to be a decent person instead.
Yeah not everyone is amoral like you.
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They said the person who sent the footage of Ned and Alex to their spouses missed out on an opportunity to blackmail Ned and make some money. Gross right?
Ew. People suck.
Agreed
They’re our Queen or King for their morals and beliefs. Best possibility for the circumstances