Howard Stern had COVID-19 for the first time, missing a week of shows

Radio icon Howard Stern, who had ridden out the height of the COVID-19 pandemic at his studio-equipped home in Southampton, announced Monday that his show aired no new episodes last week because he had contracted the virus.

“You might not realize it, but we were supposed to be on the air last week,” Stern, who turns 70 on Friday, told listeners on his SiriusXM radio show. “We were not here last week because I got COVID-19.”

He had suffered a severe case of the disease, he said.

While the satellite-radio jock said he did not believe he remained contagious, co-host Robin Quivers, 71, nonetheless replied jocularly, “I’m not getting near you.”

Stern, who was raised in Roosevelt and Rockville Centre, did not know how he had contracted the coronavirus. And while COVID had struck him hard, he said, he was grateful that inoculations had prevented the disease from becoming more serious or fatal.

“Man, I went through hell,” Stern recalled, adding, “I’ve really never been this sick.” Thanking the medical community for having developed the vaccination, he told listeners, “What a wallop this thing is — can you imagine if we didn’t have the vaccine?”

On his Sept. 6 show, Stern had predicted he would suffer a severe bout if he caught the virus. “You know how paranoid I am about getting COVID,” he said. “I haven’t gotten it, and been pretty safe, and I really don’t want to get it. Everyone goes, ‘Don’t worry, it’s just a cold.’ For me, it’ll probably be way worse. … I mean, I’m the lucky one who will completely fall apart.”

Despite his fear of contracting COVID, Stern said he and his wife, animal-activist Beth Stern, “go out to restaurants. We went to the Ed Sheeran concert” at Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett on Aug. 14. “We’ve really been out there. I haven’t gotten COVID. And I’m, like, ‘You know what? If I get it, I get it.’ … Then all of a sudden they announce there’s a new strain of COVID and it’s on the rise and people are being hospitalized.”

This led, he said, to an argument with his wife. “Beth announced to me last night, ‘I’m going to a friend’s birthday party Saturday night … and I’m going to this and I’m going to that.’ And I just said, ‘Honey, we’re going to get COVID.’ She goes, ‘That’s what you do. Every time I say I’m going to do something, you bring up COVID … and you ruin it for me.’ … I go, ‘How am I ruining it for you?’ ”

As the disagreement went on, “She goes, ‘You should apologize to me.’ At first I was, like, ‘I’m not apologizing to you because I’m not doing anything wrong. And then we almost went to bed angry and then I thought about it … and I went, ‘You know what, honey, if I'm doing that, if I'm always bringing up COVID every time you book something with your friends, I apologize. But I’m just expressing to you my fear and I'm scared.’ ”