Jay Leno has filed for conservatorship of his wife, Mavis, following reports that she’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
The former Late Show host filed legal documents on Friday, Jan. 26, according to TMZ. In them, he asked to be the conservator of his wife’s estate.
While Leno did not specify that his wife was ill, a source told the publication that Mavis is suffering from the progressive and fatal form of dementia.
Jay and Mavis Leno met at the Comedy Store in the 1970s when Jay was performing standup, according to PEOPLE. They married in 1980.
It is unclear when doctors diagnosed Mavis. But Leno shared that she had already stopped driving before he was involved in a gasoline fire that gave him third-degree burns in Nov. 2022.
Jay Leno Checked on His Wife Before Admitting Himself to the Grossman Burn Center
The incident sent Jay Leno to the emergency room, where he was told to go directly to the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles. He did go to the center, and he was treated by specialists for ten days. But before he checked in, he went home to see his wife first.
“My wife doesn’t drive anymore, and I didn’t want her stuck and not knowing what was going on,” he told Hoda Kotb during an interview on the Today Show. “It just seemed like the right thing to do, and I think it was.”
“So you loved your wife more than you worried about yourself?” Kotb asked.
“Yeah, that’s it!” he replied.
While Jay Leno and Mavis have shared a somewhat private romance, he has always been quick to gush over her during interviews. According to him, she’s the reason he’s the man he is today. He believes that comes down to dropping his ego and accepting that she shines where he doesn’t.
“I said always marry your conscience,” he told Kelly Clarkson. “Marry the person you wish you could be, who is kind, and maybe whatever fault you have, doesn’t have those faults. That’s worked out for me, so to me, I married the perfect person.”