Howard Stern has ventured out of his bunker for the first time since the pandemic began.
The 68-year-old broadcaster retreated to his sprawling Southampton estate when the pandemic first struck, and has been recording his morning show from the basement there ever since.
However, all that changed when over the weekend Stern left the safety of his home for a star-studded dinner with celebrity friends Jennifer Aniston, Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Hamm, Justin Theroux, and Jason Bateman.
The A-list group was spotted on Saturday night enjoying a meal at Israeli restaurant Laser Wolf in Williamsburg, New York City.
In a photo of the gathering - snapped by a fellow diner - Stern can be seen without a mask as he chats to Top Gun star Hamm at the table.
Another diner confirmed that Stern - who Page Six reports is an "infamous germaphobe" - had gone maskless for the occasion, telling Page Six: "Howard was there without even a mask. They all sat at a large table, Howard was seated next to Jimmy and also at one point seemed to be in deep conversation with Jon Hamm."
They added that "Stern told restaurant staff this was his first night out since the start of the pandemic."
Despite the star-studded night out, come Monday morning Stern was once again preaching the benefits of his hermit lifestyle.
"I really had an exhausting weekend, emotionally, physically," he said on his SiriusXM radio show per Page Six. "It was too much for me. It was too much. I haven’t been out in two years."
Stern went on to explain that he and his wife Beth Ostrosky were invited to the get-together by chat show host Jimmy Kimmel - but that he was originally unsure.
"I said to my wife, 'I don't want to go, I'm in a panic, I don't want to get Covid'," he recalled. The broadcaster explained that, although both he and his wife are vaccinated, he is still wary of the virus.
"I know our president has told us the pandemic is over and everyone is walking around without masks … I still just don’t want to get Covid," he said.
Stern has been taking social distancing to the extreme ever since the pandemic began. Rather than return to his Sirius XM studio when mandatory measures came to an end, the radio host continued to broadcast from his home, even making guests get multiple Covid tests and wear hazmat suits when they arrived.