Howard Stern said he has ended his friendship with Bill Maher after the HBO “Real Time” host made a comment about the radio shock jock’s habit of gushing about his wife on air.
“[Howard Stern] goes on about how much he loves his wife, Beth, which he has been doing on the air for, like, 10 years,” Maher said on the Monday episode of his Club Random podcast, during which he interviewed Julian Lennon.
“But we know Howard had this other wife before Beth,” Maher said, alluding to Alison Berns.
The two got divorced in 2001.
Maher, 67, has never been married.
“So he’s trying to make me seem like I’m the slightly immoral one because I haven’t settled down,” said Maher, whose comments were reported by the news site Mediaite.
“Could we just not gush about the person while the other person can still hear it?”
Maher prefaced his remarks by telling Lennon: “I don’t want to start a fight with him. We’ve finally repaired our relationship…and we’re getting along great.”
No longer, according to the 69-year-old SiriusXM shock jock, who hit out at his now-former friend as “sexist.”
“What a sexist thing to say!” Stern said on Tuesday.
“Like, what a convoluted, nutty thing to say,” Stern continued.
“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,” Stern said.
“He ought to shut his mouth!” the radio host added.
“I mean, I don’t think I come on the air every day and say, ‘I love my wife’,” Stern said.
“But I thought it was a pretty positive message, to — especially with my audience, to say to guys instead of like ragging on our wives, how about talking about that we appreciate them and love them. But evidently he’s very worried about my relationship,” Stern added.
The Post has sought comment from Maher.
In October 2019, Maher hosted Stern for his lone appearance on his HBO “Real Time” show.
During the segment, the two men said they were glad to have rekindled a friendship after a lengthy period during which they had a falling out.
During the episode, Stern told Maher: “The one big difference between us is I am in a committed, loving relationship with a woman.”
Maher, laughing, replied: “So what? Enjoy it.”
“I don’t understand,” Stern replied, adding: “I know you’re a heterosexual male.”
“What is it?” Stern asked. “Do you ever have like a serious girlfriend? Because we don’t see you anywhere.”
Maher joked in response: “First of all, this is my interview of you. Sit back.”
When Maher, who said he “loves” being alone, suggested that people who are married “are not alive,” Stern shot back: “I am so happily married.”
“People are so personal about this issue,” Maher said. “You’re not better and I’m not worse” because of relationship status, the HBO host said.
“I never understood how you can be with the same person just day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, I just don’t get that,” Maher told Stern.
Maher has been linked to Canadian singer-songwriter Anjulie Persuad, former Playboy model Coco Johnsen and podcast host Cara Santa Maria.