Jay Leno Protects Wife as She Battles Dementia: ‘She Trusts Him’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Talk show host Jay Leno is doing what he can to protect his wife Mavis amid her battle with advanced dementia.
The 73-year-old filed for conservatorship over his 77-year-old wife whose health continues to decline. PEOPLE reported, “His motive behind the petition was to set up a living trust for Mavis to ensure that she has ‘managed assets’ to provide her with future care if he died.”
An update on her health in a document filed by Ronald Ostin, the court-appointed counsel on the case, shared that she “has a lot of disorientation, will ruminate about her parents who have both passed and her mother who died about 20 years ago.” The documents also shared that “it was clear she had cognitive impairment, she still has a charming personality and could communicate.”
The file also indicates that Mavis “does not contest” the conservatorship and does not want anyone but Leno to fill this role.
PEOPLE shared that “The report also speaks to the nature of the couple’s relationship, which Ostrin described as ‘long-term, loving and supportive, as Mavis sees Jay as ‘her protector and she trusts him.’”
Jay and Mavis have been together for nearly 50 years, first dating in the ‘70s before they married in 1980. In an interview with PEOPLE in 1987, Mavis 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.”
Leno also previously reflected on his relationship with his wife in an interview.
“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,’” he said.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Jay Leno has revealed that his wife, Mavis, 77, was recently diagnosed with dementia and is quickly declining. The couple has been married for 43 years.
Leno has filed to be the conservator of Mavis’s estate because she “presently lacks the necessary capacity,” per her doctor.
CBS NEWS reported, “The petition, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and obtained by ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, said that the 77-year-old Mavis ‘has been progressively losing capacity and orientation to space and time for several years,’ and her ‘current condition renders her incapable of executing the estate plan.’”
“Jay has petitioned the Court to be appointed conservator of Mavis’s estate for the sole purpose of filing a petition for substituted judgment on her behalf in order to ensure her desires concerning the disposition of her assets upon her death are realized,” the petition also says.
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