UPDATE-1:58 p.m. ET: The Howard Stern Show’s YouTube page posted the full 40-minute interview online for all to see. After all, Stern famously kept his radio broadcast going throughout the 9/11 attacks. And I know that I hurt a lot of people. And those people, those are the people that I truly am sorry. I wish I had that voice that I feel like I have now that said, ‘Hey man, take a breath, relax. “You are personified with New York, and your audience, those are the people I truly in my heart feel bad that my dumb mistake created a story that just hit a wound that should never have been touched”.
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Rannazzisi said that his wife was working at the nearby World Financial Center on the day of the attacks, and that her experience influenced him to say he had been working in the south tower as well.
He described the story as a lie he told once and did not know how to extricate himself from it. The New York Times exposed his lie in a story. How could I tell my children to be honest when I hadn’t come clean about this?’ “‘You worked there?’ Yeah, I did”.
Once it was out, Rannazzisi said, he couldn’t go back.
“It’s not like I moved to Los Angeles with this story, with the thought of, ‘I’m gonna go out and trick everyone out there and tell them this is what it is.’ It wasn’t calculated at all”, he said.
“I hope things work out and people are able to give you a few forgiveness”, said the talk show host.
Steve Rannazzisi is seeking professional help and spiritual guidance after admitting he lied about escaping the World Trade Center on 9/11. Co-dependency, and wanting people to like me and make people happy.
“She had no choice”, he said. “Take that back.'” Rannazzisi’s wife and family members were also forced to become complicit in his lie.
Though he’d tweeted a series of apologies, this was the first time he’d spoken to such an extent about the lie, which happened to surface just before his Comedy Central special aired.
“They don’t know why Daddy needs to be in his office on the phone or why Daddy’s crying sometimes”, he said.
“The relief is that I don’t have to live with the lie anymore”, he continued.
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“No I don’t [think of myself as a liar]”, Rannazzisi told Stern. Rather, an inexplicable lie he uttered to fellow open mic comics at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles – where he moved immediately after 9/11 – snowballed into years of rehashing the falsities on several podcasts, radio and television interviews. “Can’t wait to meet my dad for lunch later”. “The thing that bothered me about Brian Williams – I don’t think Brian Williams has ever admitted to himself that he ever did something wrong. Nothing I say is going to”. “To me, that guy is top notch”.
