Jay Leno says the real surprise in Hollywood isn't his wife's dementia diagnosis—it's that he's staying put. On Maria Shriver's Life Above the Noise podcast, the 75-year-old comedian reflected on his marriage to Mavis Leno, 79, who was diagnosed with advanced dementia two years ago. Leno said people are "stunned" he's honoring the vows they took in 1980. "You take a vow when you get married and people are stunned … they're so shocked that you would live up to it," he told Shriver.
He recounted what he called a quintessentially Hollywood exchange: "A guy said to me, 'So, are you gonna get a girlfriend now?'" Leno said he replied, "Well no, I have a girlfriend. I'm married. Married 45 years." When the man pushed back—"Yeah, but you know what I mean"—Leno said he made his position clear: "No, we're kinda in this together here." He added that what used to be considered basic commitment now seems to strike some as unusual. "That used to be the norm, and then when you strayed that was the out of whack part," he said, per E! News. "Now the out of whack part is fairly common, and staying and doing what you're supposed to do is stunning to people."
Leno was granted conservatorship over Mavis in April 2024. He described this phase of their life as the first truly rough stretch after years of "easy sailing." Still, he said his role as a comedian hasn't changed at home: getting Mavis to laugh "is still one of my primary things." He shared a late-night moment when she told him she loved him around 2am. "I said, 'You're having a nightmare, go back to bed,'" he recalled. "She thought that was the funniest thing; she just couldn't stop laughing. And to me, that's what's fun. 'Oh, I got a laugh out of her.'"
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
