Jay Leno Talks ‘Toughest Part’ of Caring For His Wife, Says She Relived a Traumatic Memory For Years

Jay Leno recently shared the ups and downs of caring for his wife, Mavis Leno, who has advanced dementia.

In a Today interview with Hoda Kotb, aired Thursday, November 20, the legendary late-night host, 75, revealed Mavis, 79, relived a traumatic memory daily for years.

“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,” he recalled. “And her mother died every day for, like, three years.”

“Not just crying, I mean, you’re learning for the first time,” the comedian recounted. “And that was really tricky. Yeah, that makes it hard.”

In general, the former Tonight Show host explained he thinks Mavis “wants to be reassured everything’s ok.”

“She’ll point to something and say something that doesn’t quite make sense, and I go ‘no, it’s good, honey, it’s alright,'” he said. “You know, you hear a noise outside, ‘What’s that?’ You know, ‘no, it’s fine.'”

Jay also shared that he tries to find little ways for Mavis to find enjoyment, and, of course, he still makes her laugh.

“Her appetite’s really come back. I wish I could take her out and go out to eat and things like that, but you can’t really,” he admitted. “We’ll get some help, and we’ll take her out in the car and drive around and look at stuff. She likes that.”

“I feel bad,” he continued. “You reach this point in your life where she loves to travel, so I’m sad she can’t do those things, but there’s so much stuff on YouTube travel stuff, and we watch those things, you know, the animal shows.”

Kotb, 61, described Mavis —  who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 — as a “fiercely independent person,” and the TV personality agreed.

“Now she really needs me, and I like that. And I can tell she appreciates it,” Jay told Kotb. “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 is not that bad.”

Remarkably, through it all, Jay said Mavis still expresses her love for him: “When she looks at me and smiles and says she loves me, I melt.”