Jay Leno tries to ‘find the humor’ during wife’s dementia battle

Jay Leno is finding humorous moments with his wife during her battle with dementia. 

Leno, 74, opened up about the quality time he spends with his wife Mavis since the news of her advanced dementia diagnosis came out publicly last January. The comedian shared how he took his wife shopping to “have a laugh and have fun,” as they both remained in good spirits during a difficult time. 

“You try to find the humor in this situation,” he told People magazine. “I took my wife shopping, I can see she’s a little down, [so I said], ‘Come on, we’ll go to the mall.’ So we go to Nordstrom’s and I said, ‘You see anything you like?’ ‘No, no.’ So we look at the shoes, and [she said], ‘Oh, I like these sneakers.'”

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Comedian Jay Leno’s wife, Mavis, has been diagnosed with advanced dementia. (Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

The comedian continued to explain how his wife expressed interest in a pair of “these bright blue sneakers,” as he encouraged her to buy a second pair of shoes. 

“I see she’s happy, and I said ‘This is great.’ So I got two pairs of sneakers, and [the cashier says] ‘That’s $24. And the other pair, that’s $847,'” Leno said.

The cashier told Leno the dramatic price difference between the two pairs was due to the other being designer sneakers. He initially thought the cost of the shoes was a mistake when the cashier rang them up at the register.

Former “The Tonight Show” host Jay Leno took his wife to do this one “fun” activity during her dementia battle, as the comedian tries to “find the humor” in her health diagnosis. (Steve Granitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

“It looked like the guy took a pair of the same sneakers and used a bedazzler on them, and they were $800. I looked at my wife and said, ‘You like these?’ I go, ‘Honey, you look great.'”

“It’s fine, I’m glad I can afford this and it made my wife happy. It just made me laugh. Just typical,” he added. “I thought the $24 pair looked better than those, but that’s okay. It just made me laugh… I think when you’re dealing with this kind of thing, you find your moments where you can have a laugh and have fun… my wife really likes them and felt good about it.”

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Leno, who hosted “The Tonight Show” for more than three decades, went on to say, “The fact that it was the same pair of sneakers that got hit with a bedazzler, I guess that’s fine. But it just made me laugh, and that’s pretty much what it is.”

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Last May, the couple presented the inaugural Mavis Leno Award for Global Women’s Rights. The comedian told Fox News Digital at the time that life was better than ever. 

“All of that,” Leno said when asked if his faith and family have helped pull the couple together recently. “Exactly. It’s the whole thing. We’ve been married 44 years. It gets easier. It doesn’t get harder.”

Jay and Mavis Leno have been married for 43 years after first meeting at the Comedy Store in the 1970s. (NBC)

In January, Leno filed legal papers in a Los Angeles court requesting to be the appointed conservator for his wife as her health deteriorated, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

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He included in the documents that he and his wife have had a “loving marriage for more than 43 years,” adding he “has always handled the couple’s finances.”

Meanwhile, Leno has had his own health issues. He was badly burned while working on one of his cars in his garage on Nov. 12, 2022.

Jay Leno was badly burned while working on one of his cars in his garage on Nov. 12, 2022. (Jeff Kowalsky via Getty Images)

Despite their health struggles and Leno’s celebrity status, the two are just a normal husband and wife.

“We do everything together,” Leno told Fox News Digital on the carpet at the Feminist Majority Foundation’s 16th annual Global Women’s Rights Awards Gala on May 14. “I go home every night, make dinner and sit around. We enjoy each other’s company.”

The couple first met at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles before Leno rose to fame in 1976. They later married in 1980 and never had kids.

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