Howard Stern condemns Bill Maher’s “sexist” comment
Broadcasting royalty Howard Stern has condemned Bill Maher, accusing him of making “sexist” and “nutty” remarks about Stern’s first wife.
The SiriusXM radio host informed his listeners that he’s “no longer friends” with Maher due to comments made by the comedian on his Club Random podcast. Stern explained: “He took a big shot at me. Basically, he says, ‘Howard Stern always gets on the radio and says he loves his wife.’ I’ve never been criticised for this. He goes, ‘Haven’t we had enough of that? What about his first wife? I feel really bad for her.’”
The broadcaster continued: “What a sexist thing to say. What a convoluted, nutty thing to say. He says it must hurt [Berns’] feelings that I’m in love with a different woman. It’s assuming that he knows something about my first marriage. That of course the man must be leaving the woman and the woman must be devastated and be sitting around pining away for her famous man.”
“He ought to shut his mouth! I mean, I don’t think I come on the air every day and say I love my wife,” Stern added. “But I thought it was a pretty positive message, especially with my audience, to say to guys, ‘Instead of ragging on our wives, how about talking how we appreciate and love them?’”
Stern married Alison Berns in 1978, and the couple divorced 30 years later. He later remarried Beth Ostrosky Stern.
Before airing his grievances with Maher on the radio, Stern claimed to have reached out to Maher but said “he never wrote me back”.
The radio host also discussed his appearance on Maher’s television show Real Time and said: “I think I’m no longer friends with him. I went out of my way to do that show. I don’t like doing TV shows.” Stern continued: “I had years when I didn’t talk to him when we were not friends. I did the show as a favour to him because we were repairing a relationship.”
Meanwhile, Maher recently postponed his proposed return to the weekly HBO programme Real Time due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes after previously attempting to cross the picket line.
“My decision to return to work was made when it seemed nothing was happening, and there was no end in sight to this strike,” Maher said. “Now that both sides have agreed to go back to the negotiating table, I’m going to delay the return of Real Time, for now, and hope they can finally get this done.”
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