The ‘90s and ‘00s were a tough time for women in the media. Sofía Vergara is one of many celebrities who was repeatedly hypersexualized, and this week, a resurfaced clip of an interview she did with Howard Stern, who is in the news lately over contract rumors, has taken the internet by storm.
The clip, which apparently aired in 2003, began with Howard attempting to tell Sofía that he has a “big pen*s” in Spanish, which is her mother tongue. Then, when she took off her coat, Howard began making a series of crude remarks about her chest.
“You’ve taken off your coat. You do have a big chest. And I’m gonna tell you something — don’t touch it. I like it,” he told her, to which she smiled and said, “Thank you, thank you.”
“If I tell you your chest is attractive, you keep it,” he continued. Again, Sofía said, “OK. I’ll never touch it.”
Howard later asked Sofía if she breastfed her son Manolo, whom she welcomed when she was 19. She replied, “Yes, of course,” to which he said, “Oh, that must’ve been unbelievable.”
“That wasn’t unbelievable, I was like 19,” Sofía hit back.
Howard asked, “You must’ve had so much milk, right? How much milk?” Sofía let out a seemingly uncomfortable laugh and said, “Oh my God” before directly calling out Howard’s lack of “respect.”
“No respect here!” she said, to which Howard brazenly replied, “Ah, come on. I’m respecting you all over the place!”
The interaction then got worse. Howard went on to tell Sofía, “I would love to feed from you…. If you don’t wanna go out with me, then at least let me feed from your chest.”
Sofia jokingly replied, “But I’m not pregnant now.” Howard said, “That can be arranged.”
The resurfaced clip has reignited conversations about how women in entertainment were treated during the 1990s and early 2000s, and how many of those moments look very different through today’s lens. Sofía Vergara, who would later become one of television’s biggest stars through Modern Family, has spoken openly in the past about being typecast and objectified during the early stages of her career. Seeing this particular exchange again has only amplified discussions about the double standards and casual misogyny that female celebrities were forced to navigate on major platforms.
Howard Stern, of course, built his reputation as a shock jock who thrived on outrageous, often offensive humor. While his supporters argue that Stern has evolved in recent years, clips like this one are reminders of just how normalized those kinds of interactions once were. Social media users have been quick to point out how uncomfortable Sofía looked during parts of the interview, and how gracefully she deflected the comments.
The viral moment is also being viewed alongside Stern’s recent headlines about his contract future at SiriusXM. For many critics, the timing has put a spotlight on whether his brand of shock humor has aged well in an era that demands more respect and accountability in media.
