Howard Stern laid into Bill Maher on Tuesday’s (Sept. 19) episode of The Howard Stern Show, revealing that the two are “no longer friends.” The radio personality’s comments come in light of Maher’s “sexist” remarks about his marriage.
The Real Time host made a dig at Stern’s 15-year-long marriage to Beth Stern on an episode of his Club Random podcast, where he questioned whether Stern should be vocal about his love for his second wife.
“How does this gushing about the second wife — how does that make the first wife feel?” Maher asked on the podcast. “Could we just not gush about the person while the other person can still hear it?”
Meanwhile, Stern — who finalized his divorce from his first wife, Alison Berns, in 2001 — was not a fan of Maher’s comments. According to him, the political commentator “ought to shut his mouth.”
“What a sexist thing to say! Like, what a convoluted, nutty thing to say,” Stern fumed. “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 continued, “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.’ 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?'”
Since Stern claimed Maher seemed “very worried” about his relationship, he confronted him about the situation in an email. However, he never heard back from the television host.
“I wrote in an 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,” Stern said. “I just wanted to see how brave he was. 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.”
He added, “I think I’m no longer friends with him.”
Decider has reached out to reps for Maher for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.