BEVERLY HILLS, CA – APRIL 29: Television host Jay Leno (L) and his wife Mavis Leno attend the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Fifth annual Global Women’s Rights Gala at the Beverly Hills Hotel on April 29, 2009 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
OAN’s Abril Elfi
5:59 PM – Wednesday, April 10, 2024
A Los Angeles judge has appointed former talk show host Jay Leno to be the conservator of his wife, Mavis Leno, after she was diagnosed with dementia.
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According to documents obtained by Fox News Digital, Leno had filed a petition in January stating that his wife “lacks the necessary capacity to execute the estate plan” due to her “major neurocognitive disorders (including dementia).”
“I think she’s in the least restrictive environment. I think she’s in very good care with Mr. Leno,” the judge said during the hearing, according to People Magazine. “Everything you’re doing is right. I totally understand this is a difficult period.”
Mavis and Jay first met at Los Angeles’ famous Comedy Store in the 1970s. They later married in 1980.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, celebrity lawyer Christopher C. Melcher, partner at Walzer Melcher & Yoda, revealed that Leno’s petition is intended to shield his wife in the unlikely event that Jay is unable to attend in person.
“Jay and Mavis have a living trust in a will, but that was created before she got dementia, and what Jay is concerned about is that he might die before she does, and somebody is going to need to take control of these things,” Melcher said. “So, he’s just trying to do that planning now, and he needs a court order to rearrange their affairs because she has dementia and doesn’t have capacity to agree to anything right now.”
In the January petition, the former late-night host had described his “loving marriage for more than 43 years” with his wife, 77, but noted that he “has always handled the couple’s finances” and he wanted to ensure that “Mavis has managed assets sufficient to provide for her care should Jay predecease Mavis.”
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