Who Is Jay Leno’s Wife? All About Mavis Leno (and How He’s Cared for Her amid Her Dementia Diagnosis)

After his wife was diagnosed with dementia, Jay Leno learned the deeper meaning of “for better or worse.”

“Now she really needs me and I like that. And I can tell she appreciates it,” the former Tonight Show host said during an appearance on the Today show in November 2025. “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 isn’t that bad.” 

Jay and Mavis Leno met after he performed at the iconic Comedy Store in the ’70s. The comedian admittedly “wasn’t very good at dating,” and Mavis didn’t think she would ever walk down the aisle. However, that all changed when the pair crossed paths.

“I always had this idea that I would never get married,” Mavis told PEOPLE in 1987. “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.”

The couple got married in 1980. Discussing the secret to their long-lasting marriage, Jay joked on PeopleTV, “Not screwing around is a huge key. You can do a lot. You can leave your underwear on the doorknob for the rest of your life if you don’t screw around.”

All jokes aside, Jay shared, “I always tell guys when they meet a woman, ‘Marry your conscience. Marry someone who’s the person you wish you could be and it works out okay.’ ”

In April 2024, Jay was awarded conservatorship over Mavis after she was diagnosed with dementia earlier that same year. As conservator, he plans to set up a living trust for Mavis to ensure her future care in the event of his death.

So who is Jay Leno’s wife? Here’s everything to know about Mavis Leno and her relationship to the former host.

She met Jay at a comedy club

Mavis met her future husband at the Comedy Store, the famous comedy club in L.A.

“It was in January — I don’t remember the day. But at the time I thought, ‘Holy s—! That comedian is gorgeous!’ “ she recalled in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “I had gone to the Comedy Store with my girlfriend because I was writing comedy with some partners. Friends kept saying, ‘You have to hang out at the Comedy Store and the Improv. You’ll meet people who can give you jobs.’ The first time I went, they sat us front row center — that means you’re this far from the comic. And there was Jay.”

The pair’s meet-cute happened after Jay’s act. “I needed to go to the ladies’ room. What I didn’t know was in the Comedy Store back then, that area was the only place for the comedians to hang out,” she recalled. “So when I came out of the bathroom, he said, ‘Are you that girl in front?’ And I said, ‘Yes, that was me.’ ”

She didn’t think she would get married

Prior to meeting Jay, Mavis did not believe she would one day walk down the aisle. “I always had this idea that I would never get married,” she told PEOPLE in 1987. “It was a big thing with me, part of my vehement feminism. 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.”

When asked what changed her mind, Mavis said, “It was just that by the time we were together, I was 34 … I was past it, although that was an important gesture for me to make — that I could live without being married.”

Jay proposed without an engagement ring

There was no ring involved when the Jay Leno’s Garage star popped the question. “I think I said, ‘Honey, I’ve got this insurance plan,’ ” Jay told PEOPLE.

He later explained to the Los Angeles Times that he wanted Mavis to be covered by his insurance in case something happened to him.

“I had this insurance policy, and I thought if something happened to me, my girlfriend wouldn’t be covered, but if we’re married, we’re covered, so … we might as well get married. Not the most romantic. Mavis didn’t even get an engagement ring until —” he said before Mavis interjected.

“He was going to get me one, but we had just bought a house, so why would I do that?” she said. “I’m not that kind of person.” Although Jay didn’t buy an engagement ring, he did purchase a diamond ring for Mavis later.

She married Jay on a special date

The couple tied the knot in a “very small wedding” held at a friend’s house on the same day as Jay’s parents’ wedding anniversary.

“I thought my mom would like that — November 3, 1980,” Jay told the Los Angeles Times. Mavis noted that she was “crazy” about the comedian’s parents.

She did not want to have children

Mavis told The Washington Post in 2014 that she “takes full credit for” her and Jay’s decision to not have kids. Watching The Honeymooners as a girl influenced her.

“I would see a young woman who was very attractive and a thousand times smarter, and she’s living in this little tenement hovel with her husband, Ralph, and then this Ed Norton, who has an even hotter wife,” she said. “These men spend all their time talking about what a drag the wives are and asking how can they get away from them. It’s perfectly obvious the women are the ones trapped.”

She continued, “I remember telling my mother when I was 7 or 8 that I was never going to get married or have children. To me, this is the way women get caught.”

She is a board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation

Mavis joined the Feminist Majority Foundation’s board of directors in 1997 and is the chair of their campaign to stop gender apartheid in Afghanistan.

According to the foundation’s website, she is “a leader in the effort to make the restoration of women’s rights a non-negotiable element of a post-Taliban Afghanistan, and has been at the forefront of insuring that the plight of Afghan women is included in the world’s reporting of the war in Afghanistan and that the women and girls of Afghanistan are not forgotten.”

In 2009, she explained to the L.A. Times why she decided to be an advocate for Afghan women. “The Taliban was so egregious and so extreme that if women who were free to speak did not speak, we might as well say to the entire world, ‘No matter what you do to women, no one cares, just go right ahead,’ ” she said. “I promised the Afghan women that I am not one of those Americans who has no attention span, and as long as this situation persists, I will be in there. Tenacity isn’t just the most important thing, it’s the only thing.”

Mavis and Jay presented the inaugural Mavis Leno Award for Global Women’s Rights in May 2024 at the Feminist Majority Foundation’s 16th annual gala. During their joint speech, the former talk show host gushed about his wife and said marrying her was the “smartest thing I’ve ever done.”

The first years of The Tonight Show were hard for her

She revealed to the L.A. Times in 2009 that she and Jay had had “difficult” periods in their relationship.

“When Jay got The Tonight Show, the first years were hard for me. All of a sudden, Jay had this day job, and every person on the planet was asking him for something,” she recalled.

Mavis decided she would be the one who wouldn’t ask for anything. “It gave him relief at home, but that can also feel like distance,” she reflected. “I don’t know if he was aware of it because he was so swamped by the job — just the time demands alone, and the pressure.”

It took Mavis a while to adjust to Jay being so busy, but in the end, it made their relationship stronger.

She was by Jay’s side after his accident in 2022

In November 2022, Jay suffered severe burns to his face, chest and hand in a gasoline fire that broke out while he was working on a car in his garage. The TV host was rushed to the hospital and, according to his doctor, Mavis was “by his side” the entire time.

“[She is] obviously very concerned,” Dr. Peter Grossman said during a press conference following the accident. “They have a very close relationship, and she’s doing as well as you can expect a wife who is concerned about her husband.”

A month later, during an appearance on the Today show, Leno said he was also concerned about his wife during the ordeal. While the late-night veteran was urged by doctors to go straight to the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles, he decided to go home first.

“My wife doesn’t drive anymore and I didn’t want her stuck and not knowing what was going on,” Leno explained. “It just seemed like the right thing to do, and I think it was.”

Host Hoda Kotb asked, “So you loved your wife more than you worried about yourself?” He responded, “Yeah, that’s it!”

She was diagnosed with dementia

Mavis was diagnosed with advanced dementia in early 2024. Jay has since been granted conservatorship of his wife.

According to Mavis’ lawyer, she consented to the conservatorship and is “receiving excellent care with her husband.”

“I’ve been very lucky in my life. My wife is fighting dementia and all that, but it’s not cancer. It’s not a tumor, so I enjoy taking care of her,” Leno told PEOPLE in November 2025 of his wife’s diagnosis.

He added, “It’s not work, because people come up, and say they feel so sorry. I understand the sympathy, because I know a lot of people are going through it, but it’s okay.”