“I had just come out of a two-year, serious stint in therapy and I thought, ‘How can I do something where I’m talking to real people, not celebrities?’ ” she said
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- Chelsea Handler opened up about why she doesn’t interview celebrities as much as she used to during a recent Q&A
- She previously interviewed various stars on her late-night talk show series Chelsea Lately
- Handler now hosts her Dear Chelsea podcast, where she gives advice about love, sex, family and loss
Chelsea Handler is sharing why she moved away from interviewing celebrities after years of talking to them on her late-night talk show.
The comedian and bestselling author, 50, shared during an onstage Q&A at the 2025 PHM Healthfront Conference in New York City on May 1 why she felt “tapped out” with these celebrity interviews — and why she’s invited her therapist to be on her Dear Chelsea podcast over the years.
“When they said I would want you to do a podcast. I was like, yeah, I know, but everyone has a podcast,” the former Chelsea Lately host recalled of her early podcasting days when she was in her 40s. “And I had just come out of a two-year, serious stint in therapy and I thought, ‘How can I do something where I’m talking to real people, not celebrities?’ ”
“I’m tapped out with that. I need to talk to real people. And then I thought, ‘God, I’ve learned so much from this therapist,’ ” she continued. “His name was Dan Siegel, that I went to. His name still is Dan Siegel.”
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Siegel first appeared on Handler’s Life Will Be the Death of Me iHeartRadio podcast in 2019, and then again on Dear Chelsea in 2022, among other public conversations together over the years.
“He was very expensive, and I know not everybody has access to that,” she added. “I treated therapy like I was getting my master’s degree. I was so serious about learning about myself and learning about the mind.”
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Dear Chelsea, a weekly advice show that Handler co-hosts with Catherine Law, features a variety of guests nowadays — not just celebrities. Recent celeb guests in 2025 have included Rob Lowe, Rufus Wainwright, Dylan Mulvaney, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb, Rachel Bloom, Antoni Porowski, Naomi Watts and Topher Grace.
“I am always giving people unsolicited advice,” Handler said of the podcast format. “I always have been, what if people actually called in and asked for advice for their life problems?”
On the podcast, the I’ll Have What She’s Having author gives advice about love, sex, family and loss. Listeners are encouraged to email DearChelseaPodcast@gmail.com with questions on those topics and more.
