Howard Stern joked that he’s a “scumbag” as he broke his silence on toxic workplace claims.
“I’ve never had a summer where I was treated so well in the press,” he quipped on the season premiere of SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show” on Monday, according to The Sun.
“It was so positive. I can’t believe it,” Howard, 72, continued. “I can’t tell you how many different people have called me a scumbag.”
The shock jock reportedly denied The Sun’s Aug. 7 report that claimed his staff was instructed not to speak to him at company parties.
Howard also clarified that his wife, Beth, was not “defending him” during her recent interview with the Daily Mail, but rather was simply answering a question about how his show will be available to stream on HBO Max for the first time.
“They interpreted it some other way. They wrote just something they wanted to write, and said that she was defending me,” he said. “When did I ever need a defense?”
Howard added, “If you think I’m a scumbag, you’re probably right.”
Later during Monday’s live show, Howard reportedly clarified that he “gave up” his Howard 101 channel because he “didn’t want the responsibility.”
“I’ve never been more successful. I am the most successful radio personality,” Howard stated. “I mean, not that that’s anything to boast. I mean, it didn’t take much effort.”
Howard did not address his massive staff layoffs on Monday’s show.
As Page Six previously reported, Howard and Beth, 54, were sued by their former executive assistant Leslie Kuhn, who accused them of creating a hostile work environment, in April.
Kuhn detailed the “immense pressure” of managing Howard and Beth’s Hamptons home — as well as helping the latter run an “extensive at-home feline rescue and fostering operations” — in court documents obtained by Page Six.
She also claimed Howard’s production company, One Twelve, presented her with a nondisclosure agreement she denies ever signing. Kuhn claimed that both the reasons she was fired and the NDA were “manufactured by the Defendants in general and Beth Stern in particular.”
A few months later, Howard and Beth scored a legal victory when a judge ruled against Kuhn’s allegations that the radio host’s production company had forged NDAs with her name.
However, Howard found himself in more hot water after he laid off about a dozen staffers from his SiriusXM show in July, as Page Six exclusively reported.
Howard subsequently dropped Channel 101 and handed it over to Andy Cohen’s “Radio Andy.”
But Howard did ink a deal with HBO Max to allow his show, which debuted on Sirius in 2006, to stream new episodes on the platform every Thursday.
“Howard’s new series on HBO Max takes him to the pinnacle of prestige television and gives his fans a long-desired ‘seat in the studio’ to see what they just heard,” Sirius said in a press release last month.
Howard signed a three-year contract with SiriusXM in December, which he said would afford him “flexibility.”
“I am happy to announce that I have figured out a way to have it all,” he told his listeners at the time. “More free time and continuing to be on the radio.”
His previous five-year contract with the network was worth a whopping $500 million and earned him roughly $8,000 per minute.
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