Beth Stern has revealed that she’s battled a dependence on a typical household substance since she was very young.
The vast majority of Howard Stern’s life is open for discussion. After all, the radio legend makes much of it public on his long-running SiriusXM radio show. While there are subjects that he won’t talk about on air, including his divorce from the mother of his three daughters, Stern is, for the most part, almost entirely transparent. This includes the crippling disease he’s been battling his entire life.
Howard Stern’s wife Beth, however, is quite a bit more private. Diehard fans of The Stern Show are aware of some of her major likes and dislikes, as well as her dedication to animal activism and adoption. But, for the most part, what really goes on in her life is a bit of a mystery. This is with one notable exception that Howard Stern exposed on his March 27th, 2023 show.
It turns out that Beth Stern (formerly Ostrosky) struggles with a very prevalent addiction issue. Here’s the truth about her battle…
Beth Stern Struggled with a Sugar Addiction Since She Was Young
Back in 2009, Beth Stern admitted to FabFitFun that she had struggled with an addiction to sugar ever since she was young. While the number of sugary foods and beverages Beth would consume didn’t cause her to gain weight, she did notice that it became a dependence.
On top of this, she figured out that sugary foods weren’t proper fuel for marathon running, a hobby that she started in 2008.
“As I’ve gotten older — and as I was training for the marathon — I realized that a bag of gummy bears and a box of chocolate wasn’t going to properly fuel me for 26.2 miles,” Beth Stern explained to The Daily Mail Via Nicki Swift.
After she started doing dull New York City Marathons in 2008, Beth Stern cut out sugar from her diet. She told Us Weekly that she did this fairly successfully while still indulging in carb-heavy meals such as pasta.
However, while she claimed not to miss eating sugar, Beth’s dependence on sugar came back in full force during the pandemic.
Howard Stern’s Wife Beth’s Secret Battle with Sugar Caused Medical Issues
Howard Stern has frequently voiced his bewilderment at his wife Beth’s ability to maintain peak physical condition despite the fact she eats “terribly”. While Howard himself is on increasingly restrictive diets and still looks like “a mess” (his words), Beth eats whatever she wants and still has a six-pack.
Over the years, on-air discussions about Beth Stern’s diet and exercise routines have always been light and usually at Howard’s expense. But on March 27th, 2023, Stern revealed the somewhat frightening consequences of Beth’s addiction to sugar.
After an on-air discussion about the stray cats they are trying to find homes for (via Howard and Beth’s charity Beth’s Furry Friends), the former model asked her husband if they should serve a guest dessert.
“My question is dessert or no dessert?” Beth asked Howard on air. “I’m struggling. I’ve been thinking about it all morning. I’m obsessed.”
“Oh my God,” Howard responded before addressing his audience and co-host Robin Quivers.
“Beth’s got a real problem — She’s a sugar addict. And when I say ‘a sugar addict’ I don’t mean like — it gets out of control.”
Howard Stern continued by saying, “When I met her, all she ate was Gummy Bears, Lucky Charms, anything with sugar — crazy. And she was going nuts again. I caught her sneaky [it].”
Beth then admitted that her problem gets really bad when she starts eating treats behind her husband’s back and ordering copious sugary snacks on Amazon.
“She’s out of control with it,” Howard admitted. “The reason it’s out of control is that the doctor said to her, ‘Listen, you’re pre-pre-diabetic’.”
Tests showed that Beth’s blood sugar levels were through the roof following an episode where she reacted very poorly to eating too many Peeps.
“I ate two boxes of [Peeps] in one sitting,” Beth admitted.
“She goes, ‘Honey, I think I’m going to pass out’. She started getting woozy. She got very ill from Peeps. She like ODed on them. I never saw her like this.”
Beth added that she ate a bag of caramel-covered popcorn from Trader Joe’s right before consuming all those Peeps, which basically have no nutritional value. This led her to have the episode that sent her for tests. The result of these tests caused Beth to make a pledge that she would only eat sugar when guests come over… hence the question about serving dessert to her visiting friend.
While it appeared that Beth Stern had her sugar addiction under control for years, Howard believes that her mom is the reason why she relapsed.
“Beth was off all sugar and she was doing great. Her mom visits us [during Covid] and they go shopping. She’s 81 years old and she can eat sugar day and night,” Howard explained to Robin. “So Beth thinks genetically she can do the same thing as her mother and just keep eating sugar all day. So, now she’s been ODing and going crazy with the sugar.”
Beth has been “really struggling” with limiting sugar to only when guests come over. According to various studies, sugar can be nearly as addictive as some of the most notable illicit substances. But it can also take many forms.
In Beth Stern’s case, it appears to be somewhat severe, evidenced by the measures she has to take not to eat sugary junk food:
“You know that when I threw the rest of the Peeps out, I had to take old cat food and drop it on top of it so that I wouldn’t go into the garbage and retrieve them.”
Howard corroborated this story by telling a similar one about how he had to dump ketchup over a bunch of cookies Beth threw out.
While Howard is clearly supporting Beth as she battles this “addiction”, it’s clear that this will be something that she will have to grapple with for quite some time. Especially since Howard is convinced that Beth’s mother “undermines her progress” by claiming that it’s “ridiculous” to be avoiding sugar.
Either way, Beth appears committed to bettering her health.
What's Up Today Editorial Team