Jay Leno is on the road to recovery after a recent accident left him with multiple injuries. The former Tonight Show host, 74, took a tumble down the side of a steep hill while heading to dinner before a performance in Pittsburgh.
Reflecting on the incident, he shared, “I’m a little beat up. Fell 60 feet—boom, boom, boom, boom.”
The fall resulted in a broken wrist and the loss of a fingernail, with Leno adding, “I am all black and blue from 60 feet of hitting rocks.” One particularly hard impact left him with a swollen eye and required him to wear an eye patch. “A rock hit me in the eye,” he explained.
Despite the injuries, Leno checked himself out in the restaurant bathroom and still made it on stage for his performance that evening. He assured the outlet he would visit a doctor soon.
A History of Serious Accidents
This is not the first time the comedian, who has been married to Mavis Leno since 1980, has faced a frightening accident.
In November 2022, Leno suffered burns from a gasoline fire while working on one of his classic cars.
Jay Leno
Recalling the incident during an appearance, he explained, “The fuel line was clogged, so I was underneath it. It sounded clogged, and I said, ‘Blow some air through the line.’
And then suddenly, boom, I got a face full of gas, and the pilot light jumped, and my face caught on fire.”
Leno yelled to his friend Dave Killackey, “‘Dave, I’m on fire.’ And Dave was like, ‘OK.’ And I was like, ‘No, Dave, I’m on fire.'”
As Killackey told Today, “I couldn’t even see his face. He downplays it all, but I’m telling you, he was really engulfed. I couldn’t see his face—it was a wall of fire.”
In January 2023, Leno experienced yet another accident, sustaining a broken collarbone, cracked ribs, and fractured kneecaps after being knocked off his motorcycle.
Detailing the incident , he shared, “I turned down a side street and cut through a parking lot, and unbeknownst to me, some guy had a wire strung across the parking lot but with no flag hanging from it.”
