How old is Jay Leno's wife? Age and more explored as former Tonight Show host files conservatorship amid wife's Alzeimer's diagnosis

Comedian Jay Leno filed legal documents on Friday, January 27, 2024, seeking a conservatorship over his wife's estate, Mavis Leno. This is as per court documents obtained by sources like CBS News.

Conservatorship is a legal status where a person is designated by a court to oversee the financial and personal matters of a juvenile or an incapable person.

Jay Leno's wife reportedly has Alzheimer's disease, according to the same source. However, it is still unknown when Mavis was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. It is a gradual, degenerative brain illness that results in the death of nerve cells due to an accumulation of aberrant proteins.

Mavis Leno was born on September 5, 1946, and is now 77. As per sources like PEOPLE, after meeting Jay in the 1970s, Mavis married him in 1980, but the couple never had children.

---

Jay Leno and Mavis Leno have been married for four decades

American philanthropist Mavis Leno was born on September 5, 1946, and is the wife of former Tonight Show presenter Jay Leno.

Mavis, a prominent feminist in California, the US as a whole, and beyond, maintains a low profile compared to her husband. She has opted to work in the background of nonprofit organizations she supports and directs.

Since 1997, Mavis has been chairing the Feminist Majority Foundation's campaign in Afghanistan to eradicate gender apartheid. Mavis and her husband gave the organization a $100,000 donation in 1999 to help spread awareness of the suffering that the Taliban inflicted on Afghan women.

The American author and journalist Melissa Rossi claimed that when Mavis exposed the Taliban's mistreatment of women, she influenced President Bill Clinton of the United States and the leaders of the now-defunct energy corporation Unocal Corporation in changing their minds about the Taliban.

Sources like PEOPLE further claimed that Jay Leno and Mavis had a brief encounter in the 1970s after Johnny performed at the well-known Comedy Store comedy club in Los Angeles

According to the same source, Mavis didn't think the 73-year-old former Tonight Show host would ever get married, and Jay freely acknowledged that he "wasn't very good at dating." However, when the two met, everything was different.

The following week, mutual acquaintances formally introduced them. According to Page Six, Mavis once said,

“I always had this idea that I would never get married … But with Jay, I began to realize that this was the first time I was ever with someone where I had a perfect, calm sense of having arrived at my destination."

For not having children, Mavis accepts "full credit." In 2014, she further said to the Washington Post,

“I remember telling my mother when I was 7 or 8 that I was never going to get married or have children."

She was later diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Jay Leno filed for conservatorship on January 26. As per multiple reports, this diagnosis is,

"The basis of the conservatorship".

A conservatorship hearing has been scheduled for April 9, 2024.

---

On the other hand, a representative for Jay Leno did not respond to Page Six's request for comment right away. Mavis Leno also didn't say anything regarding the same.