Jay Leno filed for guardianship of his 77-year-old wife Mavis, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
The 73-year-old TV legend filed legal papers Friday to become conservator of Mavis’ estate. TMZ reported.
It is unclear when Mavis was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, a progressive, degenerative brain disease in which the buildup of abnormal proteins causes nerve cells to die.
The couple has been together for more than four decades after marrying in 1980.
Guardianship is a legal status in which a court appoints a person to manage the personal and financial affairs of a minor or incapacitated person.
Jay Leno filed legal papers Friday to become conservator of Mavis’ estate amid her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Pictured: Jay and Mavis on August 8, 2022 in Malibu, California
Jay and Mavis appear in a photograph taken on the UCLA campus in Westwood on July 11, 1989.
During a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Jay said that people should “marry the person you wish you were” and that he “married the perfect person.”
The comedian and former TV show host was spotted driving his Tesla Cybertruck, the latest edition to his extensive car collection, in Los Angeles in December.
His departure came 11 months after he broke his collarbone in a motorcycle accident, an incident that in turn occurred two months after he was burned in an engine fire.
On November 12, 2022, Leno and his friend Dave Killackey were working on one of his vintage cars at his Los Angeles mansion when his 1907 White Steam Car burst into flames and exploded in his face.
Leno’s face caught fire as Killackey said, “I couldn’t see his face, it was a wall of fire.”
After preventing Leno’s entire body from being engulfed in flames, Killackey put out the car fire.
In a recent interview with Piers Morgan, Jay said he drove to the hospital after the shock incident and then decided to go home “to tell his wife.”
The 73-year-old comedian was spotted cruising around town in his Tesla Cybertruck in December.
Temporary skin grafts from “human cadaver skin” were added to the comedian’s body, Dr. Peter Grossman said Leno suffered “relatively severe” burns to “about 7 percent of his body.”
Mavis was seen visiting her husband in the hospital parking lot with a friend following the incident with their steam car (left). Jay’s wife looks sad as she approaches the hospital with several bags in her hand (right).
“Then I went to bed and when I woke up, the pillow was melted on my face,” she said.
Mavis visited her husband while he was in hospital and looked somber when she went to see him with third-degree burns.
He then returned to the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles, where he was treated for his intense burns and released 10 days later.
Dr. Peter Grossman told NBC News that Leno suffered “relatively severe” burns to “approximately seven percent of his body,” including his face, chest and hands.
He performed skin grafts on the star, removing the burned skin and replacing it with skin from a skin bank. She noted that “much of the thickness of the skin was injured.”
In a recent interview with Pierce Morgan, Jay jokingly described the terrifying incident when he told Morgan he had a “new ear.”
Just two months after the painful incident, Leno broke his collarbone, two ribs and fractured both kneecaps in a motorcycle accident.
Jay said people should “marry the person they wish they were” and that he “married the perfect person.” Pictured: He and Mavis are seen hugging in 1990.
Leno was seriously injured after crashing a vintage motorcycle on January 17, just two months after suffering severe burns when an engine exploded in his face.
He was riding a vintage motorcycle in Las Vegas on Jan. 17 when he stopped in a parking lot and was wiped out by a piece of wire that was lying across the road without a sign above it.
He told the Las Vegas Magazine: ‘Just last week, my motorcycle was hit. So I have a broken collarbone. I have two broken ribs. I have two broken kneecaps.
‘But I’m fine! I’m fine, I’m working. I’m working this weekend.
‘I turned down a side street and cut into a parking lot, and unbeknownst to me, a guy had a wire across the parking lot but no flag hanging from it.
“So, you know, I didn’t see it until it was too late.” She just kneeled me down and, boom, she knocked me off the bike,” Jay said.