Howard Stern has branded Wendy Williams a "jealous bitch".
The 65-year-old DJ hit out at the talk show host after she suggested he had become "so Hollywood" and has lost his edge because he is now "predictable" and spends too much time cosying up to other stars, so the controversial presenter hit back in an expletive-filled rant on his Sirius XM radio show.
He fumed: "Jealous bitch. … You are nobody to me. You’ll never be me, Wendy. You’ll never be me. You can pretend to be me, you can pretend to be like me, but you’re not. You don’t have my wit and you don’t have my talent. … You couldn’t have that career. You’re a fly.
"What evidence do you have that I’m Hollywood, honey? I grew up a scumbag and I’m still treated like a scumbag. … What because I found success now I’m ‘Hollywood?’ What cause I know Jimmy Kimmel? Who am I hanging out with? She doesn’t know who I’m hanging out with. She doesn’t know what I do in this world. She doesn’t know who I’m f***ing with.
"All she talks on that show is about Hollywood. That’s as Hollywood as you get. If anyone in Hollywood called her to hang out, she’d [be there] in two seconds. All of that is a projection!"
The DJ then claimed the 54-year-old star – who recently returned to her eponymous talk show following a long absence due to ill health – wasn’t a "nice person" and branded her a "big pain in the ass".
Referencing rumours Wendy’s husband, Kevin Hunter, had been unfaithful to her, he said: "What have I done to this woman? Nothing. I’ve been gracious to her.
"Worry about your husband, not me. … F**k you and your dumb show and your mystery illness. She disappears for two months, nobody knows why, and now she’s questioning me? Thanks honey. …. I never fainted on my show either.
"I’m not somebody you want to f**k with, honey. I don’t want to hear your bulls**t. And you’re not a nice person. Nobody likes you, that’s why you can’t go Hollywood.
"People do not like her. [The staff] was doing a dance over at ‘The Wendy Williams Show’ when she was out. She’s a big pain in the ass. I hate to break the news to you, honey. Good thing you hurried back."
Howard was responding after Wendy suggested he’d toned himself down too much in recent years.
She said: "Howard is so Hollywood right now. And Howard, I love you, but since you’ve gone Hollywood, everything you say is so predictable. Every story is going to be about, ‘Oh, I love this one, and then we went on their yacht.’ He’s a Hollywood insider, which sucks.
"You started like me, being of the people. But at some point you sat behind the microphone for too long and now you are the people. It hurts."