The “King of All Media” Howard Stern revealed on the first Howard Stern Show episode of 2024 that he was not on air last week because he contracted the coronavirus.
Howard Stern announced on the most recent episode of the show that “You might not realize it, but we were supposed to be on the air last week … We were not here last week because I got COVID-19,” the 69-year-old shock jock revealed, according to The Howard Stern Show.
OMG Howard Stern got Covid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!— Opie Radio podcast (@OpieRadio) January 8, 2024
The long-time veteran of the airwaves went on to lament his time while ill with the virus. (RELATED: ‘I Am Woke, Motherf*cker’: Howard Stern Boasts About Getting Another Vaccine, Addresses Critics)
“I just want to announce something. COVID is really bad,” he noted. “You do not want COVID. Oh fuck.”
During his time in quarantine, Stern told his audience that he watched Netflix.
Despite any symptoms, Stern still saluted those who developed the COVID-19 vaccines.
“What a wallop this thing is – can you imagine if we didn’t have the vaccine?” (RELATED: Howard Stern Says Kid Rock ‘Flamboyant In His Own Way’ After Singer Protests Against Bud Light’s Transgender Promoter)
The SiriusXM star claimed to have done well up until this point, as he had reportedly avoided falling ill to COVID since the pandemic struck in 2020. Once it did, Stern significantly shifted his lifestyle to operate both professionally and privately in isolation, The New York Post reported.
““It’s impossible that I got COVID,” said Stern. Stern said he hasn’t been anywhere, he went to his mother’s and wore his masks the entire time. He also said he saw his assistant and his driver without a mask and they both tested negative.” https://t.co/ZnyJwhRcDZ
— Anthony LaMesa (@ajlamesa) January 8, 2024
Even before the pandemic, Stern has been known to have germaphobic tendencies, according to New Hampshire Public Radio.
Stern’s germaphobic ways earned him the media spotlight back in September when he stated that he had gotten into quarrels with his 51-year-old wife, Beth Stern, over the issue.
“I’m going crazy with this,” Stern said during a September on-air discussion, according to the Post. “My wife yelled at me last night. We got into a fight.”
“You know how paranoid I am about getting COVID,” the media legend added. “I haven’t gotten it, and I’m pretty safe, and I really don’t want to get it.”
When the pandemic initially kicked off, Stern began it in his “apocalypse bunker” and spent two years in complete and utter isolation out of fear of the virus, according to Page Six.