Jay Leno gave a heartbreaking glimpse into his wife’s experience with advanced dementia. The former Tonight Show host, 75, spoke to Hoda Kotb on Thursday’s episode of the Today show about the difficulties that come with being his wife, Mavis Leno’s caretaker, in the wake of her condition. “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 shared. “And her mother died every day for, like, three years.” He added that her continual reaction to it, as if she were learning about it for the first time, made it especially traumatic. In January 2024, Leno filed a petition for a conservatorship of Mavis’s estate due to her diagnosis. The two have been married since 1980. “The idea that you get married, you take these vows, nobody ever thinks they’ll be called upon to act on them. You know that part—for better or worse. Even the worse isn’t that bad,” Leno said.
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