Jay Leno was one of the most successful late-night talk show hosts in TV history.
But things haven’t been easy for him since retiring.
And Jay Leno broke his silence about his struggles with one scary situation in his life.
Jay Leno uses humor to overcome a tragic situation in his life
Comedian Jay Leno has been married to his wife Mavis for 45 years.
He announced last year that his wife was battling dementia.
Laughter has been how the couple has made the best of a bad situation.
“I still make her laugh every day, and that’s always fun,” Leno told the New York Post.
The couple will watch old clips of hosting The Tonight Show on YouTube.
“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,” Leno joked.
A court granted Leno conservatorship over Mavis last year because of her advanced dementia.
She had trouble remembering who her husband was according to court documents.
“It’s okay,” Leno 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.”
Some habits for Jay Leno never change
The couple has kept up some of the routines they developed over the years when he was hosting The Tonight Show.
“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,” Leno explained. “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.”
Leno retired from late-night TV in 2014 and switched his focus to stand-up comedy.
The comedian played legendary TV show host Ed Sullivan in the movie Midas Man about Beatles manager Brian Epstein.
“I just got a phone call one day from England,” Leno said about the part. “I enjoyed it. It was fun. I did this maybe three years ago, and I wondered, ‘What happened to that movie that just disappeared?’ It went through a couple of different directors, and then all of a sudden one day it popped up.”
The Beatles made their debut on American TV in 1964 on The Ed Sullivan Show.
“It’s a pleasant movie,” Leno explained. “It really does hark back to that era of optimism.”
Leno is still traveling the country performing his standup comedy act.
“I’m trying to get out of stuff, so I’m fine,” Leno joked. “I enjoy being a comedian. I enjoy going on the road. I’m not a Netflix special guy. I don’t want to do my act once and get a huge check. I’d rather do it hundreds of times for small checks.”
Jay Leno’s humor has helped him cope with tragedy in his life.