Howard Stern and his wife Beth are facing a lawsuit from their former executive assistant, Leslie Kuhn, who alleges she was fired from a hostile work environment after being asked to live and work at their Southampton mansion.
Kuhn claims in court documents filed in New York that Beth Stern assigned her extensive responsibilities beyond typical assistant duties, including managing household staff, handling payroll, and overseeing operations for Beth's at-home cat rescue and fostering organization. The lawsuit states that Kuhn was terminated less than two years after moving into the 20,000-square-foot estate.
The firing resulted from "a hostile work environment and enablement of that hostile work environment, immense pressures on the household created by irresponsible and untenable animal rescue and fostering operations occurring on-site, and massively disorganized and questionable business operations and accounting practices," according to the legal filing.
While the lawsuit doesn't provide specific details about the alleged animal rescue issues, Beth Stern has been publicly open about their extensive cat rescue efforts, having fostered more than 900 cats over a five-year period.
A central point of contention involves a non-disclosure agreement presented to Kuhn by lawyers representing Stern's production company, One Twelve. Kuhn alleges the NDA was backdated to appear as though it was signed when she began employment, but she claims the signature is merely her typewritten name in the same font used throughout the document.
The former assistant is seeking a court declaration that the NDA is unenforceable, which would allow her to publicly discuss her employment experience and respond to any potential accusations from the Sterns. Representatives for Howard Stern have not yet responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit.