The germ-fearing “King of All Media” has finally emerged from his “apocalypse bunker.”
Infamous germaphobe and COVID-fearing Howard Stern — who has been broadcasting from home since March 2020 — went out to dinner in public for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Stern, 68, dined at Israeli restaurant Laser Wolf in Williamsburg on Saturday night with a host of stars, including Jennifer Aniston, close friend Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Hamm, Justin Theroux and Jason Bateman.
A fellow diner snapped a photo, which showed a maskless Stern chatting with Hamm, as Kimmel sat nearby, and submitted it to celebrity Instagram account DeuxMoi.
Another diner told us, “Howard was there without even a mask. They all sat at a large table, Howard was seated next to Jimmy and also at one point seemed to be in deep conversation with Jon Hamm. Stern told restaurant staff this was his first night out since the start of the pandemic.”
Despite his dinner with the host of A-listers, Stern insists he wants to remain a hermit due to his COVID consternation and called the outing “exhausting.”
“I really had an exhausting weekend, emotionally, physically,” he said on his radio show Monday. “For the first time in two years I ventured out of the house.”
He continued about the dinner, “It was too much for me. It was too much. I haven’t been out in two years.”
Stern explained that Kimmel invited him and his wife, Beth Ostrosky, to the outing, and while Ostrosky was excited by the offer, Stern was skeptical.
“I said to my wife, ‘I don’t want to go, I’m in a panic, I don’t want to get COVID.'”
Adding that he and Ostrosky were vaccinated, Stern continued, “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.“
Stern has previously described himself as being “super paranoid about diseases and germs.”
He retreated to his sprawling estate in Southampton at the start of the pandemic, calling it his “bunker” for “apocalypse broadcasts,” and continued his morning show from the basement.
He even joked that anyone who had to come into his house had to be first tested for COVID-19 and wear hazmat suits.
Kimmel, 54, even claimed that in order to stay at Stern’s house for a few days in the summer, he and his wife, Molly McNearney, had to be tested twice.
Plus they weren’t allowed to leave the compound, and if they did, they weren’t allowed back inside due to possible exposure to COVID.
Stern admitted to the talk show host on his show in November 2021, “For me, [COVID] is still going on and I haven’t left my house. I can’t figure out how to integrate myself.”
He continued, “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].”
The iconic shock jock riled some fans when he didn’t go back to his New York City SiriusXM studio when it was declared safe and instead chose to continue broadcasting remotely.
While he has been seen taking occasional walks in the Hamptons since COVID regulations have loosened, Stern and his wife have otherwise rarely ventured out, preferring to stay at home with their cats.
“This is my dream,” the radio host told Kimmel, adding that he’s “happiest” when home with his wife.
Kimmel, meanwhile, has been trying to coax the famed hermit out of the house. He 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–k it, I’m being a p—y, I know,” Stern admitted, claiming he would eventually start venturing out for dinners with friends.
