Howard Stern finally left home for the first time since the COVID pandemic began, and he’s still stressed about the adventure.
The 68-year-old shock jock is also a self-professed germaphobe, which made him especially cautious when it came to COVID. He’s been hiding out in his “bunker” for the past two years but was finally spotted out at the restaurant Laser Wolf in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood over the weekend with a bunch of other celebrities, including Jennifer Aniston, Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Hamm, Justin Theroux, and Jason Bateman, Page Six reported. He was reportedly mask free at the table.
Stern discussed the experience of going out for the first time in so long on the Monday episode of his radio show, which he’s been recording from home all along.
“I really had an exhausting weekend, emotionally, physically,” he explained. “For the first time in two years I ventured out of the house.”
As for the overall experience, he said, “It was too much for me. It was too much. I haven’t been out in two years.”
Stern said it was Kimmel who’s been urging him to come out and socialize. He extended the dinner invitation to the radio host and his wife, Beth Ostrosky, who has been quarantining with him. She wanted to go but he did not.
“I said to my wife, ‘I don’t want to go, I’m in a panic, I don’t want to get COVID,’” Stern told the audience. He and Ostrosky are both vaccinated, he said, but that didn’t affect his decision.
“I know our president has told us the pandemic is over and everyone is walking around without masks … I still just don’t want to get COVID.”
The so-called “King of All Media” joked in the past that anyone stopping by his house first had to get tested for COVID and either way had to wear hazmat suits. Kimmel said that when he stayed with Stern for a few days over the summer, he and his wife had to present two negative tests, the publication reported.
The “Jimmy Kimmel Live” host said, “We’re worried that we’re going to lose you from society because the longer this goes on, the more comfortable you get in that little world. And then it’s harder and harder to get out of it … it’s unhealthy.”
“F*** it, I’m being a p****, I know,” Stern agreed, before saying dinner with friends was an option he’d consider.
“For me, [COVID] is still going on and I haven’t left my house. I can’t figure out how to integrate myself,” Stern said in November 2021. “I’ve been locked up so long and I haven’t gotten COVID. I’m afraid I’ll be the one a**hole who gets COVID and I’ll die. Even though people don’t seem to be dying that much [anymore].”