Howard Stern And His First Wife Alison’s Vicious On-Air Fight Set The Stage For Their Mysterious Divorce
Howard Stern‘s first wife, Alison Berns, was with him since his university days. Unlike his second wife, Beth Ostrosky, Berns witnessed the radio legend’s rise to stardom. And, for the longest time, it seemed like she would be the only woman to share in his incredible success. But come 2001, their multi-decade-long relationship came to an end.
Stern has been criticized for his touching relationship with his current wife, including by Bill Maher. Mostly because Stern is a hopeless romantic. In some ways, he’s always been that way. After all, he was exclusively with Alison Berns for years before their split. But their relationship may have been brought with conflict. At least one extremely vicious on-air fight on The Howard Stern Show seems to suggest this…
Howard Stern And His First Wife Alison Berns Got Into A Brutal Argument On His Radio Show
Howard Stern fans seldom heard from his now ex-wife Alison Berns while they were married. Not only did she rarely call into his radio show, but she almost entirely remained out of the spotlight as she raised their three daughters. But on April 10, 1995, Alison Berns absolutely let loose on her then-husband on his radio show.
Their vicious on-air fight might have set the stage for their divorce. At the very least, it added further insight into why their marriage didn’t go any further. While there were some minor on-air discussions about their 2000 separation and 2001 divorce, Stern has mostly been respectful of Berns’ privacy. Nowadays, he rarely brings her up or speaks about what went down between them. However, Stern has stated that his focus on his career may have contributed to their divorce. Alison Berns’ comments to Stern on April 10th, 1995 seem to add legitimacy to this narrative.
“I keep toying with this idea of calling my wife but she would yell at me,” Howard Stern said to his co-host Robin Quivers on his April 10, 1995, broadcast.
Stern explained that he and his wife fought the night before due to a disagreement about their sleeping arrangements. Stern complained that Berns disturbed his sleep by coming in to the bedroom too late. On top of this, he claimed he preferred to sleep alone. Berns, on the other hand, wanted to sleep in bed with her husband. This caused a major disagreement —
“He threw her out of the bedroom,” Robin Quivers summed up for the audience.
Moments later, producer Gary Dell’Abate got Howard Stern’s first wife on the phone…
When Stern attempted to apologize, Berns called him “insincere”. She went on to claim that all he needed to do was “lay there and go to sleep”. Instead, he had to make a big deal of her coming into bed later than him.
“You are so unbelievable. Go to a hotel!” she continued.
“We tried sleeping together last week for three nights,” Stern explained to his audience. “What happens is, my wife comes in the room and I wake up. I wake up when she walks in the room. Last night she started messing with the windows. Alison, just go into the bed and lay there.”
Stern has always been extremely particular about his sleep. He goes to bed early and gets up early so he can get his act together before his morning broadcasts. He has claimed that sleep is essential to his success on the radio. This is something Berns seemed to understand, however, she didn’t like the way in which Stern handled their conflict.
“I’ve got to sleep alone because of these hours,” Stern claimed. “You’re insulted by that.”
Berns then went on to claim that Stern threw a temper tantrum when she woke him up a few hours after he went to bed.
“You kicked me. You pulled the covers. You are obnoxious.”
“Because I can’t sleep if you’re in there,” Stern said before claiming it’s the only room in their house where he could, theoretically, sleep peacefully. he then joked, “I told her to go sleep in the hampster cage last night.”
“Oh, Alison, that’s not nice. You know I love you. It’s got nothing to do with our love for one another.”
“Howard, you are horrible,” Berns continued, clearly very upset.
While Stern continued to defend himself by claiming he has a lot of pressure to be coherent and funny for his audience every morning, it was clear the two were not seeing eye-to-eye despite brief moments of shared laughter. These moments of laughter during an otherwise heated conversation added more insight into their relationship. Howard Stern and Alison Berns clearly enjoyed each other’s company, sense of humor, and shared a deep love for one another. But Stern appeared inflexible when it came to their sleep argument.
What Happened To Howard Stern’s Marriage?
While speaking to Rolling Stone in 2011, Howard Stern revealed his true feelings about his divorce from Alison Berns.
“I was with my ex-wife since college, so it felt like such a failure…I was upset that I failed and let down my family, my kids, my ex-wife. It was all very painful.”
This is something Stern has spoken about on his show numerous times. But in the Rolling Stone interview, he summed up the main reason for his divorce succinctly:
“I was totally neurotic and sort of consumed with work. I took work as the most important thing and the only thing,”
This reason is certainly thematically related to the vicious on-air fight the pair had in 1995. However given that it was a few years before their initial separation, the fight in question may have just been an example of the type of arguments Berns and Stern were having behind the scenes.
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