Satellite radio host Howard Stern blasted former friend and fellow media personality Bill Maher after he criticized the way Stern talks about his wife during a recent podcast.
On "The Howard Stern Show" Tuesday, the host called Maher’s comments "nutty" and "sexist," saying that the "Real Time with Bill Maher" star "ought to shut his mouth."
Stern added he assumes the two aren’t friends anymore in light of Maher’s comments.
The words that set Stern off came during Sunday's episode of the Maher’s "Club Random" podcast, during which late-musician John Lennon’s son, Julian, was a guest.
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Maher made the comments after recounting to Lennon how Stern told him in the past that he needed to "settle down" and get married. According to the host, Stern was on his HBO show "right before the pandemic" and told him, "'Bill, you know, you're successful, but don't you wanna settle down?'"
Maher continued, "And he goes on about how much he loves his wife, Beth, which he has been doing on the air for like ten years. But we know Howard had this other wife before Beth. So he's trying to make me seem like I'm the slightly immoral one cause I wouldn't settle down."
He then rebuked the way that Stern has allegedly talked about his second wife, Beth Stern, whom the radio shock jock has been married to since 2008. Maher suggested that the way Stern fawns over his current wife must make his first wife feel uncomfortable.
He asked, "How does this gushing about the second wife — how does that make the first wife feel? Could we just not gush about the person while the other person can still hear it?"
Stern and his first wife, Alison Berns, married in 1978 and divorced in 2001.
The XM Sirius host responded to Maher’s comments on air. He first paraphrased them, saying, "Basically, he says, 'Howard Stern always gets on the radio and says he loves his wife.' I've never been criticized for this. He goes, 'Haven't we had enough of that? What about his first wife? I feel really bad for her.'"
He then judged the comments, stating, "What a sexist thing to say. Like, what a convoluted, nutty thing to say. 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."
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Stern had more to say about it, urging Maher to refrain from the subject.
"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?,’" Stern said.
The radio host remarked that Maher seemed like he was "very worried about my relationship."
Stern then told his audience that he sent Maher a direct email, telling the comedian to give him marital advice directly instead of gossiping about it on his podcast.
"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," he said.
Stern elaborated that he sent the email because he "wanted to see how brave" Maher was and "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."
"I think I’m no longer friends with him," he added.
Stern also referenced Maher's plan to bring back his show "Real Time" without writers, a decision Maher subsequently reversed when there were signs of progress in negotiations with the writers strike.
"This is what happens when Bill doesn't have writers. He just goes on a ramble about somebody's life that he doesn't know. But who cares in the end?" he asked.
Neither reps for Maher nor Stern immediately responded to FOX News Digital’s request for comment.
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