'IT IS WHAT IT IS'

Jay Leno Opens Up About Wife’s ‘Tricky’ Dementia Battle

The former late-night host said he considers himself “lucky” that it isn’t worse, but admitted there will be “tricky” years ahead.

Jay Leno, 75, opened up about the ups and downs of becoming his wife’s caretaker after her dementia diagnosis. “We have a good time. We have fun with it, and it is what it is,” he told People on Sunday, adding that he “like(s) taking care” of his wife Mavis, 79, and “enjoy(s) her company.” The former talk show host explained that caretaking is “not terrible,” adding that he considers himself “lucky” that it isn’t cancer or a tumor. Leno said he’s “not a woe-is-me person,” but admitted that “there are going to be a couple of years that are tricky.” However, he noted that the decades since the couple wed in November 1980 have been “really great.” Mavis was diagnosed with advanced dementia in April 2024. Leno filed for conservatorship of Mavis Leno in January, noting at the time that he would “execute an estate plan, including a revocable trust and will, which will provide for Mavis and Mavis’s brother and her sole living heir aside from Jay.” He was granted conservatorship three months later. Shortly after, Leno told In Depth With Graham Bensinger that challenging times like this “really defines a marriage.” He added, “I mean, that’s really what love is. That’s what you do.”