Comedian and actor Steve Rannazzisi shocked fans when a New York Times report confirmed that the story he told multiple times about being at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 was a lie. The star of FX's "The League" previously issued an apology, and he recently appeared on "The Howard Stern Show," where he opened up about why he lied, Us Weekly reported.
Stern asked Rannazzisi why he told the lie, and Rannazzisi said that while he doesn't think of himself as a liar, the reason why he lied may be due to his own mental health issues. Rannazzisi said that he's seeing someone now that helps him deal with his co-dependency and his desire for people to like him.
Rannazzisi said that the lie started when he moved out to Los Angeles just shortly after the 9/11 attacks with his girlfriend (and now wife) Tracy. He started hanging around at comedy clubs in the city, and when people asked him if he was at the WTC at the time of the tragedy, Rannazzisi said that he didn't correct them.
"It's not like I moved to Los Angeles with this story with the thought of like 'I'm gonna go out and trick everyone and tell them this is what it is,' it wasn't calculated at all," Rannazzisi explained. "You have like, 15 seconds I think to kind of go 'hold on, I'm sorry that's not true' and if you pass that 15 seconds, now it becomes thing where you're like 'now I have to be the guy who's very strange and weird and just said I lied about 9/11.'"
However, Rannazzisi apologized to those who lost loved ones and who survived 9/11 and said that he specifically wanted to do so on Stern's show.
"You're personified with New York," Rannazzisi told Stern, "and your audience, those are the people, truly in my heart, I feel awful that my dumb mistake created a story that just hit a wound that should never have been touched."
Watch Rannazzisi's full interview on "The Howard Stern Show" below.
