Bill Maher’s September 2023 statements regarding his relationship with his wife Beth upset Howard Stern. Stern’s remark on Maher caused a massive media backlash, which was already focused on the Real Time host for his position on the 2023 WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike.
Bill Maher slammed Stern on his “Club Random” podcast for o publicly talking about how much he loves his current wife, Beth. This reignited a feud that had plagued their friendship for decades. During his reaction, Stern defended both Beth and his first wife, Alison Berns, against what he called Maher’s “sexist” attack.
Howard Stern responded to Maher’s statements on Tuesday, September 19th. But only after claiming to have sent an email to Maher.
“So I did something I’ve never done before. I wrote him an email,” Stern said to his co-host Robin Quivers and the audience before disclosing what he wrote in the email. “I said, ‘Why don’t you give me a phone call? Why don’t you tell me what you think about my life and my marriage since you’re, you know.’ But of course, he never wrote me back.”
“You don’t need to explain or justify yourself to anybody,” Quivers responded.
“I just wanted to see how brave he was,” Stern said. “If he was brave enough to call me and actually get on the phone with me and zero response. I don’t care, though. He can think what he wants.”
However, the Real Time host did not answer immediately. At the time of writing, it was unknown whether Maher ever responded.
The fact that Maher took his time responding to Stern’s email further fueled Stern’s anger. As a result, he decided to take down the Real Time host live on his radio show.
“What a sexist thing to say. Like, what a convoluted, nutty thing to say,” Stern stated.
Stern also defended his ex-wife, saying, “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.”
However, Stern was even more forceful in his defence of his current spouse. “[Maher] ought to shut his mouth,” he said. “I mean, I don’t think I come on the air every day and say, ‘I love my wife.’ 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?'”
“Hey, yeah, I do love my wife. I like saying ‘I love my wife’. And I don’t see anything wrong with that. I think it’s good,” Stern said to his audience. “And I can pretty much assure you, I don’t think anyone is upset about me loving my wife.”