‘Howard Stern Show’ honors late stylist Ralph Cirella with heartbreaking tribute

nypost.com:

Instagram account Wednesday. “Bye for now, Ralph ❤️,” it concluded. Stern, 69, announced Cirella died Tuesday morning after his “heart gave out” in the middle of a medical procedure he was receiving as he battled a “curable” form of “rare” lymphoma.

He was 58.“Ralph developed an illness, but I really feel he got involved a little too late because the illness he got was curable and was treatable, but he had some complications of waiting too long, and I got very upset with him,” Stern revealed on his show Wednesday.“I think this is the toughest part of loving someone — when you lose them/ Lord knows I loved Ralph.” “I was not ready for Ralph to go,” he heartbrokenly continued. “I was not expecting Ralph to die.”“I just have been so sad and so angry,” the broadcaster said, admitting he is taking the loss “very hard.”“He didn’t take care of himself,” Stern added about his pal of more than 40 years.

The Post previously contacted reps for Stern for comment.Stern credited Cirella for getting him to leave the house and go to a party where he would meet his now-wife, Beth Ostrosky.“My wife said to me last night, ‘You and Ralph have a secret language’ and it’s true … we had a great chemistry, and we had a great friendship, and Ralph was one of my bros.

In fact, I came to think of Ralph as family.”Cirella is also the reason Stern starts every episode with “hey now,” as Cirella would repeat the famous line from “The Larry Sanders Show.”Cirella first entered Stern’s orbit when he called into his WNBC radio show in 1985.