Marc Maron has once again opened up about his long-standing tension with Jon Stewart, offering his most candid reflection yet on the feud that has followed them through decades in the comedy world. In a new interview with Esquire, Maron admitted that the conflict was “fully fueled” by his own “insecurity,” acknowledging that Stewart himself had never done anything to deserve his hostility. “Jon never did anything to me,” Maron confessed. “I was just jealous.”

The comedian, known for his brutally honest self-reflection, explained that his animosity toward Stewart dates back to their early days in the 1990s comedy scene, when both were carving out identities in a highly competitive environment. At the time, Maron succeeded Stewart as the host of Comedy Central’s short-lived clip show Short Attention Span Theater. The program was canceled in 1994, just before Stewart landed what would become his career-defining role as the host of The Daily Show. For Maron, watching Stewart rise to national prominence while he struggled to find his footing in the industry sparked feelings of resentment and inadequacy that would take years to unpack.

Looking back, Maron described his envy of Stewart in deeply personal terms. “Jon was this smart, cute, Jewish guy who was disciplined,” he said. “He knew how to harness his talent and make it work for him. I never had any control over my talent — I didn’t know what it was or what its limits were.” Maron admitted that while Stewart seemed grounded and intentional, he himself was chaotic, emotionally volatile, and self-sabotaging during those years. “Throughout my early career, Jon, who’s roughly my age, was everywhere,” he said. “My envy of him was always… I would just shit on him, and to his face. It was consuming. I couldn’t go a week without seeing him on the cover of a magazine. I saw him as this symbol — like, ‘If I could just get my shit together, I could be like that guy.’”

That belief, Maron added, wasn’t grounded in reality. “It wasn’t true, because I was out of my mind,” he admitted. “And honestly, I was gunning for something else entirely. But back then, I couldn’t see it. I just saw him as the guy who had everything figured out — the guy who did everything right that I couldn’t seem to do.” His jealousy, he said, was not simply professional but existential, rooted in his own doubts about whether he’d ever live up to his potential.

When asked whether he had ever tried to mend fences, Maron revealed that he once reached out to Stewart to appear on his hit podcast WTF with Marc Maron, which ran for nearly 1,700 episodes before ending earlier this month. He said he had extended the invitation “early on” in the show’s history, hoping to bury the hatchet and have an honest conversation. Maron recalled calling Stewart to tell him about the podcast and to offer a kind of informal apology for how he’d acted in the past. But the response he got was not what he’d hoped for.

According to Maron, Stewart replied curtly, telling him, “There’s no love here.” Maron said Stewart added, “I might be willing to have coffee or something, but I’m not doing that with you.” The exchange left Maron stung. “He said, ‘I’m sure what you’re doing is very creative, and good luck with it.’ Just the stinging condescension of that … it didn’t help anything,” Maron said. Though he laughed about it now, he admitted that Stewart’s words stayed with him for years.

Ironically, as Maron pointed out, Stewart has since launched his own podcast — something that feels like poetic symmetry to him. “And now he’s doing a podcast,” Maron said with a wry chuckle. “So, full circle!” While there’s still no indication that the two have reconciled, Maron’s tone suggests that time and perspective have softened his bitterness. What once felt like rivalry now seems, in hindsight, to be an internal struggle — one that says more about Maron’s battles with self-doubt than about Stewart himself.

Maron’s honesty about his insecurities has long been a hallmark of his work, from his raw stand-up routines to his introspective interviews on WTF. His reflections on the Stewart feud echo many of the themes that have defined his career: the search for self-acceptance, the corrosive effects of envy, and the hard truth that most rivalries are fought within. “It was all me,” he admitted. “Jon didn’t deserve any of it. I projected everything I hated about myself onto him. And now, after all this time, I can finally say that out loud.”

While the wounds between them may never fully heal, Maron’s willingness to confront his own flaws marks a sense of closure — not just with Stewart, but with the insecure young comic he once was. In typical Maron fashion, the revelation comes not with bitterness, but with a blend of humor, humility, and hard-won perspective.