Here in the simultaneous ages of reality television and instantaneous communication, a handful of ill-advised remarks can severely impact a person's life. These are the circumstances that led to the downfall of Steve Fowler. In January 2009, the San Francisco resident appeared on "Wife Swap." His spouse headed off to Missouri, while that family's matriarch, Gayla Long, moved in with Fowler in his historic Noe Valley home, according to SFist. He and Long were very different, personally and culturally, and Fowler lashed out, calling his reality TV co-star a "dumb redneck" who he also found "undereducated, over-opinionated, and overweight."
These comments caused Long to break down into tears, and "Wife Swap" viewers to exact revenge. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, internet denizens exposed Fowler's address and phone number. He became a negative viral sensation known by the shorthand of "the worst husband in the world." Fowler's house was egged, security guards were posted in his neighborhood, and he lost his job as the CFO of a solar power company and had to resign from the boards of two nonprofit organizations.
A month after his "Wife Swap" aired and he suffered the swift backlash, Fowler publicly apologized via a statement. "I am not going to hide behind excuses. I showed an extraordinary level of stupidity and ignorance," he wrote. "Clearly I behaved like a complete jerk and I am deeply sorry for the offense I have caused."
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