Pulling no punches.
Host Shane Gillis dragged Chelsea Handler’s dinner at Jeffrey Epstein’s New York home into Netflix’s “Roast of Kevin Hart” special on Sunday night.
Both comics attended the event as part of the streamer’s 2026 Netflix Is a Joke festival, with Gillis making the surprising Epstein joke shortly before introducing Handler to the stage.
“Chelsea is a Zionist. Not saying that’s a good or bad thing,” the “Tires” star, 38, began. “Speaking of dead kids, she’s a big fan of abortions. Chelsea’s been scraped more times than the grill at Benihana.”
He continued, “Speaking of tossing tiny shrimp into a child’s mouth, Chelsea Handler went to dinner at Jeffrey Epstein’s house in 2010. Look it up, there are articles.”
Gillis went on to say that the dinner wasn’t “like a big party” because there were only “like seven people there,” including “like Prince Andrew and Woody Allen.”
But the Epstein jokes didn’t end there, because Handler appeared to make one of her own shortly after taking the stage.
“Welcome to tonight’s episode of ‘To Catch a Predator,’” the former “Chelsea Lately” host, 51, said. “This is a real who’s who of statutory rapists.”
She added, “We’re all just lucky none of you could afford an island.”
Handler previously spoke about the “awkward” and “weird” dinner she attended at Epstein’s home during an appearance on Rob Lowe’s “Literally!” podcast in February 2021.
The podcast episode came less than two years after the disgraced fiancier died in an apparent suicide while in jail on child sex-trafficking charges in August 2019.
“I did go to dinner at Jeffrey Epstein’s house,” Handler told Lowe. “I didn’t know who Jeffrey Epstein was. It was like twenty – I don’t know what year it was, but it was a long time ago.”
She continued, “I went with Katie Couric. Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn were there. Charlie Rose was there.”
Handler also told Lowe that she didn’t stay at Epstein’s home “for very long,” although she said she did run into then-Prince Andrew at the dinner.
“When we got there, I was like, ‘What is this gathering?’” the comedian recalled. “Oh yeah, Prince Andrew was there with — no, with no one. He was there with Jeffrey Epstein.”
She added, “Yeah, we had dinner, and it was so awkward and so weird. I was like what are we doing here?”
The “I’ll Have What She’s Having” writer insisted that the 2010 dinner was the only time she crossed paths with Epstein.
“I’ve never been on the private island, and I’ve never been on his plane,” she told Lowe. “I’ve met him one time, and that was the time.”
Epstein’s Little St. James Island and private jet made recent headlines after the US Department of Justice released over 3 million pages connected with the late financier.
While the documents reportedly showed that many people visited Epstein’s private island or flew on his private jet, the Justice Department stressed that being named in the documents was not evidence of wrongdoing.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.
