Jay Leno is a man who likes motorcycles and fast cars.
Those who are fans of his YouTube channel know that this is a man who not only owns but drives pre-World War I cars with 22-liter aircraft engines powering them. He owns an insanely fast, insanely rare $20 million McLaren F1 — and, to hear him tell it, does not exactly drive it within the speed limit. And even when it comes to more modest rides, he’s known to sing the praises of Ralph Nader’s bete noire: the Chevrolet Corvair, which he describes as a reasonably sedate American version of an early Porsche.
So, when he showed up at a comedy gig looking battered, you would be forgiven for assuming it was vehicle related. As it turns out, the culprit was 1) gravity and 2) rocks.
According to NBC’s Today, the 74-year-old former host of the “Tonight Show” surprised many by showing up with a bruised face and eye patch at an event in Los Angeles.
The fall, he said, happened when he fell down a hill before a show in Pittsburgh.
“I’m a little beat up,” he told “Inside Edition.”
“I fell 60 feet. Boom, boom, boom, boom,” he added, saying he “hit a bunch of rocks” and was now “all black and blue.”
One of the rocks hit him in the eye, necessitating the eye patch. And the injuries looked significantly worse when it was removed:
Do you like Jay Leno?
“It’ll be fine,” Leno said. “I’m not worried about it.”
However, it does come after a series of mishaps which did involve vehicles and had many worried about the former talk-show host’s general health.
In 2023, Leno said he “got knocked off” a motorcycle and broke his collarbone after he smelled gas and attempted to pull the bike over.
What he didn’t notice, unfortunately, was that the empty parking lot he pulled into had a wire stretched across two poles which he didn’t see, leading to him being knocked off.
“I’ve got two broken ribs. I’ve got two cracked kneecaps,” he said at the time, in addition to the collarbone.
One year earlier, he suffered burns over 7 percent of his body while working on one of his cars in his garage.
He said that, while trying to clear a clogged fuel line, he blew “some air through” it.
“And suddenly, boom, I got a face full of gas. And then the pilot light jumped and my face caught on fire,” he said.
However, his “new face” after surgery looked little worse for wear:
#JayLeno is revealing his post-accident face after suffering third-degree burns. pic.twitter.com/MrNLjvqVkO
— Access Hollywood (@accesshollywood) March 2, 2023
Injuries aren’t the only tragedies to befall Leno, alas.
In April, Leno filed for conservatorship over the estate of his wife Mavis due to her advancing dementia.
A court document filed by the lawyer for 77-year-old Mavis Leno said that she “sometimes does not know her husband, Jay, nor her date of birth.”
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny commended Leno for his course of action during the conservatorship hearing, saying “everything seems totally appropriate for the care” of his wife.
“I know this is a hard time when this needs to happen, and I thank you,” the judge told Leno.
“It’s OK. You know, it’s life. Everybody goes through it,” Leno told Fox News about his wife’s diagnosis.
“I’ve been very lucky in my life. I don’t complain about everything. We have a lot of fun, and I cook dinner for her every night. She’s good. She’s good, you know? It’s changes you have to make, but that’s OK. That’s OK”.
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