Jay Leno Shares How Caregiving for His Wife With Dementia Gives Him ‘Purpose’

Legendary ‘Tonight Show’ TV host Jay Leno, 75, has always been cheerful. Now he’s channeling that same energy into caring for his wife, Mavis Leno, 79, who was diagnosed with advanced dementia last year.

“My wife’s got some problems, so it’s just her and me,” Leno told People recently. “But it’s always been her and I for the last 45 years anyway, so it’s fine. I enjoy taking care of her. It’s fun.”

The former Tonight Show host reiterated that he does “enjoy” the duty of caring for his wife and explained the misconceptions people may have about caring for a sick loved one.

“People think, Oh, it must be horrible. No, because she’s not in any pain,” Leno said.

“She’s not suffering. It’s not like a tumor or cancer. It’s just a confusion that comes with Alzheimer’s and dementia. And that’s OK.”

Leno takes pride in being his wife’s “rock” because “it makes you feel wanted.”

“You got a purpose now. So it’s good,” he said.

Leno was granted conservatorship over his wife’s estate in April 2024 because she had been “progressively losing capacity and orientation to space and time for several years,” according to a filed petition.

In April, the Jay Leno’s Garage star explained the daily tasks involved in being his wife’s caretaker.

“When you have to feed someone and change them and carry them to the bathroom and do all that kind of stuff every day, it’s a challenge,” he said on the In Depth with Graham Bensinger podcast. “And it’s not that I enjoy doing it, but I guess I enjoy doing it.”

Entrepreneur and model Emma Heming Willis is another public figure who has openly shared her experience with caregiving.

She recently discussed with AARP what she has learned from caring for her husband, ‘Die Hard’ movie star Bruce Willis, 70, who was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023.

“A neurologist said to me, ‘You’re burning your candle at both ends, and you need to understand that sometimes due to the stress of caregiving, the caregiver dies before the person that they are caring for,’” Heming Willis explained.

“That was such a wake-up call. We have young kids, and I didn’t want them to lose two parents. So I started to make a conscious effort to find time in my day to care for myself, and understand that it’s not selfish; it’s self-preserving. And if we don’t care for ourselves, then how can we properly tend to the person that we’re caring for?”

Dementia is a degenerative disease that affects more than 7 million Americans. More than 288,000 U.S. adults 65 and older died of dementia in 2022, the most recent data available, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The most common types of dementia are Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia and mixed dementia. All these illnesses derive from a progressive destruction of brain cells, which is why they are called neurodegenerative diseases.

AARP provides resources on both dementia and caregiving, including balancing caregiving while working and traveling with a loved one who has dementia.

For more information on caregiving for a loved one or friend, visit aarp.org/caregiving.