Howard Stern's wife makes name as animal activist

If there's any doubt that Howard Stern's often lewd musings are the well-honed rants of a personality carefully crafted by the so-called "shock jock," just consider the company he keeps off satellite radio - namely his wife, Beth Ostrosky Stern, known to Howard's legions of fans as "Beth O."

The former model-actress is an animal-rights activist who volunteers at the North Shore Animal League America in Port Washington, the Wildlife Rescue Center of the Hamptons and the Long Island Bulldog Rescue in Stony Brook. The Sterns, who live in Manhattan and Southampton, have an English bulldog named Bianca and Apple, a 4-year-old cat with a skin condition that has left her legs and belly bald. A portion of the proceeds from her new reference book, "Oh My Dog: How to Choose, Train, Groom, Nurture, Feed and Care for Your New Best Friend" (Gallery Books/ Simon & Schuster, $25.99), go to animal welfare charities, for which she has already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

On a recent afternoon in Southampton, Ostrosky Stern, 37, is gracious when a fan interrupts a conversation with photos of his pet - and also his grandchild - and she doles out compliments for both.

Though modeling is long behind her, she still dabbles in television, conducting occasional celebrity interviews for the TV show "Extra" and acting as a judge on the ABC reality show "True Beauty."

Involved in multiple ways

For more than five years she's served as a celebrity spokeswoman for North Shore Animal League America. According to Devera Lynn, the nonprofit's vice president of communications, Ostrosky Stern doesn't just lend her name. "She makes a huge difference, she just loves animals," says Lynn, adding that Ostrosky Stern visits the animals, helps out when puppies are rescued from mills, raises awareness in general about adopting cats and dogs, and raises funds. In 2008, "Beth ran the New York City Marathon and raised over $300,000" for North Shore, Lynn says.

She also volunteers at the Wildlife Rescue Center of the Hamptons, a not-for-profit in Hampton Bays dedicated to the rehabilitation of injured animals, where she also helps with fundraising and other events. Two summers ago she took a three-hour course there to learn how to administer first aid to injured wildlife, executive director Virginia Frati says.

Ostrosky Stern, a native of Pittsburgh, acknowledges that her lifestyle enables her to devote as much time as she wants to animals in need. She met Howard Stern in 2000 at a dinner party at a restaurant in SoHo. He was a recently divorced 45-year-old father of three who vowed over the airwaves that he'd never remarry.

She says she hadn't listened to Stern's radio show. "My father and two brothers were huge fans, but my mother and I definitely did not listen. I was aware of who he was, of course - how could you not? I knew his persona," she says. But when she met him, "the second we started talking I realized, 'Wow, what a brilliant man. What a brilliant comedian.' "

Husband backs her efforts

Howard Stern, she says, was "the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. We talked that night until 3 o'clock in the morning. Then at 7 a.m. the next morning my phone rang, and it was him. And we haven't been apart since." They famously married in 2008 in Manhattan's Le Cirque restaurant before a star-studded guest list and now split their time between a Manhattan apartment and a Southampton beachfront home. Stern often speaks about her work with animals on the air, calling her his "angel."

"She is the real thing. A genuine person with a good heart, and she leverages her celebrity to do good in the world," says Laurette Richin, executive director of the Long Island Bulldog Rescue.

Howard Stern's listeners are aware from his comments that he's an animal lover, but his involvement goes further than he reveals. He is often in partnership with his wife. When a rescued bulldog needed expensive angioplasty surgery, Richin recalls, the couple quietly donated the money for it. In lieu of wedding gifts, the Sterns requested donations for the Wildlife Rescue Center of the Hamptons.

This doesn't sound much like the Howard Stern who appears to dissect his personal life on the air, while flushing out an orchestrated mélange of program guests. "People think they know us, but they don't," says Ostrosky Stern, insisting that Husband Howard is not Radio Howard.

"He's the love of my life," she says. "He plays chess, he's a great father, he's passionate. . . . He's a shy, quiet guy who still takes my breath away."