“I ended up hooking up with her several times without the guy that I was dating,” Handler revealed
Chelsea Handler is opening up about the reason she and former NBC chairman Ted Harbert broke up more than a decade ago.
On Wednesday, the comedian, 48, chatted with Andy Cohen on his SiruisXM radio show about the threesome she had with the couple’s masseuse — and how that was the beginning of the end of her relationship with Harbert.
The topic came up when Cohen asked Handler if she ever dated a woman.
“I’ve slept with a woman,” the Chelsea Lately star revealed, “but I haven’t dated a woman.” When Cohen pushed for more detail, Handler admitted it was during a threesome.
“I was very turned on by this woman,” she said. “I ended up hooking up with her several times without the guy that I was dating,” Handler revealed. “That’s when I knew it was time to break up with the guy.”
Cohen laughed and Handler continued. “I don’t think I ever revealed that, but I mean, hopefully, he’s listening now,” she said with a chuckle. “His name is Ted Harbert. He’s in Portugal though. He might not have access to this … he and his wife are building a house in Portugal.”
Handler and Harbert broke up in 2010 after dating for four years. He was the president of E! Entertainment when the Handler’s late-night show launched in 2006.
Previously, Handler suggested the reason they broke up was because he couldn’t separate work from the rest of their life.
“I would come home from work, and Ted would be like, ‘Do you want to watch your show?’ and I’d be like, ‘No, I just came from my show. That’s the last thing I’d want to do,’” she said in an interview with Marie Claire in 2012. “That was the reason it didn’t work out, ultimately. I think.”
Cohen continued to press Handler about threesomes in the interview, asking if she’d ever “gift your man a three-way?”
“Absolutely,” she responded emphatically. “It’s fun. Absolutely.”
“I mean, I don’t want to get double teamed by a guy,” she continued, “but I like another girl in the situation. You know, she can do all the stuff that I’m too f—— lazy to do.”
Handler most recently dated Jo Koy, 52, before announcing their split last year.
The pair was introduced by a mutual friend almost 20 years ago. Koy then went on to make regular appearances on Handler’s former E! show, Chelsea Lately. The couple went public with their relationship in September 2021.
In July 2022, Handler announced the couple’s split on Instagram, sharing a video that was meant to be posted on their one-year anniversary. “Because of him, my life experience has changed forever,” she wrote, in part. “To be loved and adored by @jokoy has been one of the greatest gifts of my life. He renewed my faith in men, in love, in being 100% who I am, and I’ve never been more optimistic for the future.”
“Our split was beautiful. It really was,” Koy told in May, echoing comments he had previously written on Instagram: “I’m her biggest fan and I can’t wait for you all to see what she has in store for the future. Keep killing it, Chelsea! Mahal kita!”