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Jay Leno is getting candid on his wife Mavis’ health battle.
The former late-night host, 75, opened up about a difficult moment in caring for his wife of 45 years amid her dementia battle during a pre-taped “Today” segment, which aired Thursday.
“I mean, probably the toughest part was, every day she’d wake up and realize someone had called today to tell her her mother had passed away,” Leno told Hoda Kotb during their sit-down interview.
“And her mother died every day for, like, three years. And it was not just crying, I mean, you’re learning for the first time,” he explained. “Each time was — and that was really tricky. Yeah, that makes it hard.”
The comedian, however, did note a little win for Mavis. He shared that the philanthropist’s appetite has “really come back.”
“I wish we could,” Leno added about not going out to restaurants anymore. “I could take her out and go out to eat and do things like that, but you can’t really. We’ll get some help and we’ll take her out in the car and we’ll drive around and look at stuff and she likes that.”
The television host revealed he “feels bad.”
“You reach this point in your life where she loves to travel,” Leno continued. “So I’m sad that she can’t do those things. But, you know, there’s so much stuff on YouTube, the travel stuff, and we watch those things and, you know, the animal shows and all that kinda stuff.”
He said that while Mavis still recognizes him, it may not stay that way.
Mavis’ condition became public in 2024 after Leno was granted conservatorship over her. Despite the challenges, Leno feels at peace in his role as her caretaker.
“I understand what it is, so I don’t — you can’t blame someone. She’s not forgetting me, you know. That hasn’t happened yet. She seems very — I mean, she seems extremely comfortable now,” he said. “And she seems happy, and she seems contented. It’s actually OK. It’s good. You know, I enjoy taking care of her.”
Leno and Mavis met at Los Angeles’ Comedy Store in January 1976 before tying the knot in 1980.
“I was writing comedy with some partners,” Mavis told the LA Times in 2014. “Friends kept saying, ‘You have to hang out at the Comedy Store and the Improv, you’ll meet people who can give you jobs.’ The first time I went, they sat us front row center—that means you’re this far from the comic. And there was Jay.”
While Leno hosted the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” from 1992 to 2014, Mavis established herself as an activist. She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for her support of women in Afghanistan.
At this stage of their marriage, Mavis is reliant on Leno “because now she really needs me, and I like that. And I can tell that she appreciates it,” he told Kotb.
“And the idea that you get married and you take these vows, nobody ever thinks they’ll be called upon to act on them, you know?” the star mused. “You know that part for better or worse. But even the ‘worse’ is not that bad.”
These days, Leno tries to keep a positive atmosphere at their house.
“You know, when I’m carrying her — you know, carry her, like, to the bathroom, we do this and I call it Jay and Mavis at the prom, you know, in high school, you know,” he confessed. “So, we’re just, like, back and forth. And she thinks that’s funny.”
In Leno’s eyes, the couple still shares an immense amount of love.
“You know, I can see the smile. I can tell when she’s happy,” he shared. “And when she looks at me and smiles and says she loves me, I mean, I melt.”
In January, Leno exclusively told The Post how laughter has helped them through the tough moments.
“I still make her laugh every day, and that’s always fun,” he stated.
The spouses also enjoy rewatching clips from his late-night show.
“We go back on YouTube — they have all the ‘Headlines’ [segments] that we did over the years. And my wife enjoys those, and it’s like she forgets that she just saw it, so she laughs again at the same jokes. So for a comedian, that’s great,” he said. “She’s not in any pain. Anybody that’s dealt with this knows that. You know, I enjoy her company. I would still rather be with her than not be with her … But is it ideal? No.”
Leno even kept up a special ritual between them.
“When ‘The Tonight Show’ finished, I would just come home every night and work on the monologue and be with my wife, and we’d watch a movie or watch TV,” he recounted. “And it’s pretty much like that now, same thing, except now I just kind of go, ‘You know, honey, you know what this movie is about?’ You just have to explain.”