Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Chelsea Handler Bitten by Sea Lion

Chelsea Handler recently told viewers of her “Chelsea Lately” talk show on E! that she had an uneventful summer…except for the fact that she was attacked by a sea lion. The comedienne was bitten on her left leg while paddle boarding in the Pacific Ocean.

“If there was ever a woman who was born to get up to ridiculous nonsense, it was probably Chelsea Handler,” wrote one blogger upon hearing of the incident. Knowing that some might suspect this was just part of her schtick, Handler reportedly lifted her skirt to show off the bandages she is still wearing on the wound. “You don’t believe me? These medical stickers are real!” she exclaimed.

Handler, 37, recounted exactly how it happened that “suddenly a rogue sea lion leaped up and viciously attacked my leg.” She had apparently been paddle boarding with a few friends, but got separated from them at some point. She fell off her board and noticed a sea lion that had been following her. When the animal looked her straight in the face, she said she immediately sensed she was going to be attacked. “F-ck! I’m like, I know I’m going to get bitten by a sea lion! Of course I would! Who else would get attacked?” she recalled thinking.

Fortunately for the comedienne, she had been on safari and remembered her guide having told her to make a lot of noise should she ever be attacked by an animal. “So I’m in the water with one arm in the paddle board and I [squawked] and it worked!” Handler said. “It really worked.”

Although sea lions do not commonly attack humans, there have been reports of people being bitten by them in the waters off the West Coast. A spokesman for the Marine Mammal Center in San Francisco warned, “People should understand these animals are out there not to attack people or humans. But they’re out there to survive for themselves.” Sea Lions, which range from 100 to 300 kilograms and have large, sharp teeth, should be left alone.

Another celeb learned this lesson the hard way. Earlier this year, Shakira reported on her Facebook page that while she was in vacationing in Cape Town, South Africa, a sea lion jumped up out of the water and attempted to bite her as she tried to take a close-up picture of it.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.