John Mulaney, Adam Levine, now Ned Fulmer. What do these men all have in common? Their main personality trait was that they love their wife, but they all cheated on them. What is this trend of being a “wife” guy? Why is it harmful? And why do these men cheat?

A “wife guy” is a man who posts content about his wife in order to upgrade his social standing and the public opinion of him, or a guy whose fame or career is owed to the content he posts about his wife. It’s different than just a man who loves his wife and doesn’t care who knows it. 

Essentially, the vibe of these wife guys is kinda like when someone pours their heart out over social media in gradious Instagram posts with captions longer than this opinion piece. Sometimes it can be sweet, but other times it can seem disingenuous, like they are overcompensating for something. 

John Mulaney was well known for praising his wife in his comedy sketches. Adam Levine was known for calling out mysogints and reinforcing how much he truly loved his wife. But out of the three mentioned above, Ned Fulmer was the true wife guy. Faithfully every video, he would mention his wife at least three times. Fans have created over 10 minute long videos of him mentioning his wife. The Try Guys even launched a figurine of Ned that said “my wife” in his voice. Ned Fulmer literally profited off of being a wife guy and portraying being the perfect husband, not to mention he and his wife also co-wrote a cookbook for date nights. 

There is nothing wrong with a man who is open about loving his wife. However, the problem lies in when these wife guys are open about loving their wives to benefit from the public and himself, rather than his actual wife. For example, take Gomez Addams. He did not constantly tell everyone how much he loves Morticia, but rather showed how much he loved her through his actions. There is a difference. 

Additionally, idolizing wife guys praises men for loving their partners, which is something they are supposed to do anyway, reinforcing the idea of praising men for the bare minimum. Society’s bar for men is so low, but yet, we collectively insist on congratulating these men for loving their wives and find it so rare and special when men are open about their love. 

This praise can get to a person’s head, much like these wife guys, to the point that they cheat, thinking that the internet would never believe that scandal because of their facade. Their love becomes rooted in narcissism, not actually about respecting and honoring their partner at all. 

A person can talk about how much they adore their spouse all they want and post to social media, telling the world how phenomenal their partner is and how they love being a family man, but at the end of the day, it’s what is done in private that matters. The overcompensation, especially after all these public husband blunders, is more suspicious than ever.