NY judge dismisses ex-assistant lawsuit vs Sterns

A New York judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former executive assistant against radio host Howard Stern and his wife, Beth Stern, which alleged the couple created a hostile work environment. The ruling, issued on July 29, 2026, by New York State Supreme Court Judge Melissa A. Crane, granted the Sterns' motion to dismiss the complaint in its entirety.

The case was initiated by Leslie Kuhn, who filed her complaint on April 5, 2026. Kuhn, who began working for Stern in September 2022 as an office manager and was promoted to executive assistant in January 2024, claimed she was terminated in February 2026. Her lawsuit sought to invalidate nondisclosure agreements from 2022 and 2025 and alleged her firing resulted from a hostile work environment. Specific claims included immense pressure from extensive animal rescue operations at the Sterns' Southampton compound and what she described as disorganized business and accounting practices.

In their motion to dismiss, filed on April 29, 2026, the Sterns' legal team characterized the lawsuit as a thinly veiled attempted shakedown, alleging Kuhn had hatched a plan to extract a staggering hush-money payment. A central point of...