Chelsea Handler Defends Herself After Heather McDonald Says She ‘Lived In Fear’

Chelsea Handler guested on Howard Stern‘s SiriusXM radio show and fired back after Heather McDonald said she “100 percent lived in fear” during her years working on Handler’s late-night E! talk show Chelsea Lately.

McDonald recently appeared on the Allegedly podcast and explained her years next to Handler. McDonald said she is a “good person,” she doesn’t agree with “how she treats relationships in her life.”

“I lived in fear, 100 percent lived in fear,” she said. “I enjoyed my time there, I was happy, but I mean something would happen and my heart would be beating and I would be like, ‘Is this it?’ – you know? And then somehow I just managed to keep surviving.”

Handler revealed that she cut McDonald out of her life after she found out that McDonald was selling her personal life stories to the tabloids in exchange for magazine appearances. McDonald worked on Chelsea Lately from 2007–2014.

“I could have fired her. I did not fire her. She had a job for four more years. I never hung out with her personally again. So I hope she was living in fear,” said Handler. “It’s not an internment camp. If you’re living in that much fear, go get another job.”

When Stern questioned further, Handler explained she was a good writer, but Handler did not see her outside of work. “I just thought it was a betrayal … I wasn’t paranoid, I just withdrew from that whole social scene – I withdrew from her,” Handler said. “I wouldn’t hang out with her, I wouldn’t be alone with her. You know, she’s somebody who would love to hear about Jennifer Aniston‘s house on the weekend. I could never, ever share my personal life with her again.”

Handler is now gearing up for her new talk show, Chelsea Does, that premieres this Saturday.