Howard Stern Should Have Been Canceled After This Creepy And Gross Celebrity Interview

Throughout Howard Stern’s lengthy career, he has become extremely rich after hosting “The Howard Stern Show” for decades. On his radio show, Howard has had many incredible interviews, like when he got Donald Trump to talk about his prenup and he got Matt Lauer to admit his secret crush. Even though Howard has celebrity friends and Artie Lange was his former sidekick, he has also had some awful celebrity interactions.

In the past, Howard was beaten up over his comments, Dolly Parton threatened to sue him, and a celebrity held a grudge against him for years. As awful as all that is, it is even more remarkable that Howard’s career managed to survive one of his gross and disturbing celebrity interviews.

Howard Stern’s Gross Interview Of The Spice Girls’ Emma Bunton Should Have Gotten Him Canceled

As of 2025, Howard Stern has become a respected mainstream radio show host. Part of the reason why Howard is viewed the way he is today is because his radio show regularly features lengthy celebrity interviews.

Given how Howard conducts interviews in 2025, it makes how he used to behave truly shocking. After all, back when Howard was a shock jock, he would ask his celebrity guests some truly shocking questions.

While Howard has conducted several controversial interviews, it is staggering that his career survived some that were especially bad. In fact, Howard’s interview of Emma Bunton from The Spice Girls was so gross that he should have been canceled.

In the late-2010s, the website Stylist published an article about Howard’s disturbing interview of Emma from The Spice Girls.

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As that article revealed, during their 2005 interview, Howard asked Emma a series of far too personal questions.

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Keeping in mind the incredibly personal questions that he asked during their conversation, it has to be noted that Howard is significantly older than Emma.

Emma Bunton And Howard Stern’s Origins
Where Was Howard Stern Born?	New York City, New York
When Was Howard Stern Born?	January 12th, 1954
How Old Is Howard Stern As Of February 2025?	71 Years Old
Where Was Emma Bunton Born?	London, England
When Was Emma Bunton Born?	January 21st, 1976
How Old Is Emma Bunton As of February 2025?	49 Years Old
How Much Older Is Howard Stern Than Emma Bunton?	22 Years and 9 Days

The first shocking question that Howard asked Emma was whether she was a virgin when she joined The Spice Girls. Asking Emma that unprovoked during a conversation would be gross enough. Howard’s question was made worse since he asked Emma when she knew millions of people were listening.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Emma was only 18 years old when she joined The Spice Girls. That means that Howard was asking about Emma’s virginity unprovoked during a time when she was 18, and he was 40 years old. As gross as the situation was, what happened next still managed to make things even worse.

In response to Howard asking if she was a virgin when she joined The Spice Girls, Emma simply responded by saying a single word. “Yes.”

Howard Stern asking Emma Bunton invasive questions during an interview in the year 2005 is even worse for another reason. According to a Nicki Swift article about her love life, Emma was in a relationship in 2005 with Jade Jones. Still together to this day, Emma and Jade are now married and share two kids together.

When a celebrity gives an interviewer a one-word answer, it should be clear to everyone that things are going awry. Despite that, Howard didn’t seem to hold back at all when Emma seemed disengaged. Instead, the next question that Howard asked Emma was whether she was lying about being a virgin when she joined The Spice Girls. In response, a laughing Emma amitted that she was lying.

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Seemingly uninterested in engaging Emma in a conversation at that point, Howard instead opted to fantasize in front of the famous singer about her past. After saying that Emma had a “hot little body” when she joined Ther Spice Girl, Howard spoke about her being involved with another woman and more than one man at a time.

While this should go without saying, there wasn’t a natural reason to bring up Emma’s virginity when Howard asked her about it.

It also has to be stated that Emma seemed very uncomfortable during the conversation, as can be seen during a YouTube upload of the conversation. In fact, at one point, Emma even told Howard that her father wouldn’t like how he was treating her, seemingly in an attempt to get him to stop. Howard later told Emma that her dad wasn’t there to protect her while insisting she would get undressed in front of him.

Howard Stern looking shocked — Via: Instar

At other points during the interview, Howard told Emma that he wanted to have an intimate encounter with her. At one point when Howard was talking about getting a hotel with Emma, the singer went so far as to put her hands over her face.

Howard also asked Emma when she got her first period and when she developed as a teen. Amazingly enough, there are many other gross aspects of the way that Howard spoke to Emma during the interview that haven’t been touched on here. With that in mind, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Emma told Howard that he’d been “rude” to her during the interview.

While many people don’t support the so-called cancel culture, it is easy to argue that Howard’s bosses should have canceled him for treating a guest that way.

A Different Spice Girl Walked Out Of A Howard Stern Interview

In September 2013, E! News published an article about Melanie “Mel B” Brown appearing on “The Howard Stern Show.” That article revealed that Howard and Mel B’s interview also went totally off the rails.

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As E! News’ article outlined the interview started to go wrong when Howard asked Mel B about her troubled childhood. Howard even went to so far as to bring up Mel B trying to harm herself when she was young during the interview unprovoked. In response, Mel B asked Howard if he was really going to bring up such a sensitive topic. “You’re gonna go right there? Right now?”

After Mel B called Howard out for bringing up her childhood as she tried to play along, he then brought up another seriously sensitive subject. When Howard tried to get Mel B to talk about Eddie Murphy, she proclaimed she wasn’t going to touch that subject.

“[Eddie’s] a great guy. I don’t think I have much to say about him, because I don’t think it’s appropriate. At the end of the day, we have a beautiful daughter together.”

Howard Stern, Heidi Klum, Mel B, and Howie Mandel judging America's Got Talent — Via: NBC

Surprisingly willing to take a clue that time, Howard changed the subject to something more intimate. Howard asked Mel B if she’d been intimately involved with the other members of The Spice Girls. At first, Mel B took that subject in stride and revealed that she’d kissed every other member of the former girl group.

However, things came to a head after that. When Howard asked Mel B if she thought she was a role model for the LGBTQ+ community, she’d had enough. As E! News’ article revealed, Mel B stood up, pulled out her headphones, and walked out of the interview.