This season of America’s Got Talent, Howie Mandel has been facing some heat regarding his jokes about Sofia Vergara and her split from Joe Manganiello.
Some have taken to social media to comment on Howie’s inappropriate jokes, and he recently revealed that he does read all of the comments, “and it’s hard.”
“If you’re commenting, you are hurting my feelings – but that’s okay,” he said in a recent interview with The U.S. Sun.
“The point is, I can only be me, and I think if you saw me doing something because you wanted me to get a response, or you saw me doing something because I was just trying to be patronizing and nice, I think that wouldn’t come off authentic.”
Howie continued, “All I want to be is authentic, and all I want to be is honest, and I don’t think what I say curbs your opinion at all.”
“You’re just hearing what I think.”
Howie Mandel opens up on how he feels about comments received about him
Howie continued telling the outlet that he would share what he thinks even if no one liked to hear what he has to say.
He noted what he thinks “isn’t the end-all-and-be-all,” but the comments sometimes impact him.
However, he’s confident that the people disagreeing with him are the minority, and more people agree with him but simply don’t comment on social media to make their presence known.
Howie said, “I think there’s a lot of people who agree with me, and they’re not going to reach out to me on social media to agree, but if they disagree, then they are typing, so those are the people you’re going to hear from the most.”
“I’m assuming millions of people are watching, and during a show, only hundreds of people don’t agree with what I’m saying.”
However, that doesn’t mean he isn’t affected by the comments made about him, as he noted that he does care.
“I’m a human being who has feelings, and they ask me to show up here – Terry says, ‘Howie, what do you think?'”
“I don’t want to tell you, ‘I don’t want to tell you what I think because people are going to get mad at me.’ I’m going to tell you what I think.”
Howie Mandel labeled ‘the Grinch’
Not just viewers of the show think that Howie is being a villain, as costar Heidi Klum revealed that they call him “the Grinch.”
“[Howie’s] gotten very honest and harsh,” she revealed. “I could find something negative [in an act] if I really want to, but I like to find the positive in what I just saw.”
She noted that sometimes things get mixed up when he’s talking, and the words don’t always come out the best, but at the end of the day, there are four different people with four different opinions being shared on the stage.
“We see different things, and everyone should have their opinion – I just don’t say it as harshly, maybe, as he does.”
America’s Got Talent airs Tuesdays at 8/7c and Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC and next day on Peacock.