Jay Leno has made a tearful speech in honour of his wife Mavis, who was standing by his side as he presented an award in her name, just one month after he was granted a conservatorship to deal with her affairs as she battles an advanced form of dementia.
The former Tonight Show host and his wife of 44 years took to the stage at the Feminist Majority Foundation’s 16th Annual Global Women’s Rights Awards & Gala to present the inaugural Mavis Leno Award for Global Women’s Rights, in honour of her Nobel Prize-nominated work as chair of the charity’s Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan since 1997.
Jay made a heartwarming speech about Mavis, 77, telling the audience that marrying the philanthropist was “the smartest thing” he’s “ever done”.
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“We have a lot of fun,” he continued while tearing up on stage, “People say marriage is difficult. I don’t get it. I enjoy her company. I enjoy taking care of her. We have fun. She’s the most independent woman I ever knew. Again, I just couldn’t be prouder of her.”
“I am part of her legacy and that’s what I’m proudest of.”
He also delved into their life at home, with both of them now in their 70s.
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“We’ve been married 44 years. It gets easier. It doesn’t get harder,” he told Fox News Digital at the event.
“We do everything together. I go home every night, make dinner and sit around. We enjoy each other’s company.”
Jay, 74, was granted a conservatorship over his wife Mavis just last month after it was revealed in a court hearing that the 77-year-old “sometimes does not know her husband, Jay, nor her date of birth”.
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The documents also revealed Mavis “has a lot of disorientation, will ruminate about her parents who have both passed and her mother who died about 20 years ago”.
In a hearing held last month, a judge found “clear and convincing evidence that a Conservatorship of the Estate is necessary and appropriate,” because Mavis Leno is “unable” to independently manage her financial affairs due to dementia, according to the court documents.
The pair first met in the ’70s at the Comedy Store and tied the knot in November 1980. They do not have any children.
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