Known to frequently utter, “don’t touch me!” Howie Mandel shocked everyone in September 2023 as he tightly embraced Reba McEntire on the stage of The Voice.

 

The comedian, who has a debilitating fear of germs, gave into his excitement and couldn’t resist the magnetic pull of the country music star.

 

While in the spotlight, Mandel seems energetic and happy, but off screen, he explains he’s a “scared” man, who out of the spotlight prefers to live “in the fetal position.”

 

And recently, he made a shocking confession, revealing how he manages the OCD that guides him to “absolute hell.” Keep reading to learn more!

The nightmare of the global pandemic unleashed the inner germaphobe in many people, sensitizing the population to the dangers of contamination.

For many, that fear only lasted a couple of years but for others, the fear of germs is never-ending and debilitating.

 

“There isn’t a waking moment of my life when ‘we could die’ doesn’t come into my psyche,” says Howie Mandel, who struggled with severe anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) since he was a child. Speaking with People, the 68-year-old TV personality explains the pandemic was especially triggering: “But the solace I would get would be the fact that everybody around me was okay. It’s good to latch onto okay. But [during the pandemic] the whole world was not okay. And it was absolute hell.”