On Tuesday’s edition of The Howard Stern Show, Stern expressed his sadness over the news that Alley passed away on Monday at the age of 71.
During the announcement her children remarked that her cancer had been “only recently discovered.”
“I was all freaked out. My wife told me this morning that Kirstie Alley died,” Stern began.
“I saw that last night and I started reading up on her because again, another person we had on the show and had really warm feelings for,” his co-host Robin Quivers said.
“Well, what freaked me out about Kirstie Alley is — is that she’s 71 and I know to some people that’s old, but to me that’s young and they’re saying it was like a sudden kind of cancer,” Stern replied.
As the conversation continued, Stern floated the idea that perhaps Alley not visiting the doctor’s office during the Covid pandemic may have led to a delayed diagnosis.
“I know she was an anti — she was not anti-vaccine, but she was anti-mandate. Maybe — this was a theory this morning cause we were all discussing it. Maybe she didn’t go to the doctor soon enough when she wasn’t feeling well? But that’s complete — a story made up by us. I mean, there’s no facts behind it,” Stern said.
“There are many, many cancers, Howard, that don’t really show up with symptoms for a long, long time,” Quivers said.
“Is that right?” Stern replied.
“Like you can have it and not really understand that whatever is going on with you is a cancer thing instead of just, you know, normal tiredness,” Quivers added having gone through her own cancer battle in 2012.
“Well that’s true,” Stern replied. “That’s what happened to you. That’s what happened to you. All of a sudden they were like, ‘Well you got this big tumor the size of a grapefruit’ and you’re like, ‘What? What are you talking about?’”
“Yeah. Cause I was still functioning, running around, doing everything I always did. I was tired, but that was it,” Quivers concluded.
Alley was an outspoken opponent of Covid vaccine mandates. In a tweet from October 2021, she said she would not be getting the vaccine because it does not provide complete protection agains the spread of the virus.
“Get the vaccines and boosters, I don’t care… but until they can prevent me from getting COVID or prevent you from getting it.. I won’t be getting it and will ignore mandates to get it.. seems fair to me,” she said.
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