Howard Stern wanted to apologize to Robin Williams for the 'disastrous' interview in the 90s: 'He died before I could, I am still filled with sadness'
Radio host Howard Stern, in his upcoming book, 'Howard Stern Comes Again', details an interview he regrets to this day. The radio host who has conducted many interviews over his long career looks back on his interview with Robin Williams with deep regret. According to reports, he writes of the interview with the late actor as his "biggest regret".
"Possibly my biggest regret was my interview with Robin Williams," Stern writes. "I was attacking the guy, and he was justifiably furious with me." Not new to controversy erupting from the interviews on his show 'Howard Stern Show', Stern had questioned Williams of his affair with his son’s nanny, Marsha Garces, when he interviewed Williams back in the early 1990s. Williams went on to marry Garces in April 1989.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Stern recalled what unfurled during the interview. "I loved Robin Williams, but there I am beating him over the head with like, ‘Hey, I hear you’re f—ing your nanny?" he had said on the interview. "I could have had a great conversation, but I’m playing to the audience. They want to hear outrageousness, and that’s my arrogance thinking that Robin Williams can’t entertain my audience. How stupid am I?"
"I wasn’t rude with Robin Williams, but I asked some questions that perhaps went into areas that he had enough of," he said on his show just one day after the actor committed suicide in 2014, expressing regret over his interview with Williams.
"I think my whole demeanor and attitude was just s—y. I wasn’t trying to be mean to Robin Williams. I was just trying to be provocative and interesting for the audience, and doing what it is that I thought had to be done. And I was an immature a—hole. And so that always haunted me … and then I kind of filed it away and forgot about it," Stern added.
"This was a guy who should have been celebrated," Stern further added.
“Years later, I realized I finally needed to apologize,” Stern continues. “It took me twenty years to work up the nerve. I was in the midst of tracking down his phone number, and the next day he died. I’m still filled with sadness over his loss and remorse for my failure to reach out sooner.”
The 65-year-old has moved away from his lewd interview patterns and now conducts interviews on his SiriusXM radio show.
"You can only interview so many strippers," he told THR. "loved the idea that we’d go on the air and measure our penises or discuss vaginal secretions. Whatever it was, if it freaked you out, I loved it because, to me, it was not a big deal. But now I find it gross. And I’d feel really f—ing sh—y if I hadn’t evolved. I’d be completely out of step with the times."
'Howard Stern Comes Again' will hit bookstores on May 14.