Self-Proclaimed Germaphobe Howie Mandel Touches ‘AGT’ Co-Host Sofia Vergara’s Feet In Order To Avoid Shaking Hands

By Alex Vena
Published Aug. 31, 2023, 3:59 p.m. ET

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Howie Mandel has publicly expressed his germaphobia since 2009, preferring the fist bump to a cordial handshake in order, per ABC News. He even collaborated with prospective America’s Got Talent contestant David Rush to set the Guinness World Record for most fist bumps done in thirty seconds during auditions, which they won by fulfilling a whopping 380 fist bumps.

However, it seems as though the AGT co-host (sarcastically) found an alternative greeting: touching feet.

Mandel joked about his aversion to shaking hands via an Instagram post he shared yesterday (Aug. 30), featuring him holding fellow AGT judge Sofia Vergara‘s ankles while she’s lying across the judges’ table. The caption reads, “I’ll do anything to not shake hands.”

The official AGT Instagram account got in on the fun, commenting, “this is too good.”

Vergara also shared the picture to her Instagram account, writing, “We r almost liiive!!”

Mandel told TMZ Live that he “went insane” after his 10-day isolation following his COVID-19 diagnosis in 2022, which he contracted after the Kids Choice Awards.

“I still feel like I’m recovering from that, the insanity,” he continued. “And I’m not joking. I got incredibly depressed, incredibly neurotic,” noting that “you can’t distract yourself for 10 days alone in a room.”

While being interviewed via Zoom by Jimmy Kimmel during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, Mandel, whom Kimmel introduced as “Mr. Purell,” referred to the pandemic as “the nightmare that’s been going on inside [his] head for the last 64 years.”

“So now welcome to my nightmare, Jimmy,” he quipped. “This is what it’s like to be Howie Mandel!”

America’s Got Talent airs episodes Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8/7c on NBC. Next-day streaming is available on Peacock.