By Michaela Gordoni
Jay Leno is taking care of his wife of over 40 years, Mavis, as she struggles with dementia.
The TV star says “it’s not that bad.”
“The idea that you get married and take these vows — nobody ever thinks they’ll be called on to act on them, you know?” Leno said on the TODAY show. “You know that part, ‘for better or worse.’ But even the ‘worse’ is not that bad.”
“She’s not forgetting me. That hasn’t happened yet. She seems extremely comfortable now,” he shared. “And she seems happy, and she seems contented. It’s actually OK. It’s good. I enjoy taking care of her.”
Mavis is very dependent on Leno, but he likes being needed.
“That’s part of it, because now she really needs me, and I like that. And I can tell that she appreciates it,” he said.
Related: Jay Leno Given Conservatorship for Wife With Dementia
They still have some romantic and humor-filled moments, Fox News reported.
“You know, when I’m carrying her — you know, carry her, like, to the bathroom, we do this and I call it Jay and Mavis at the prom, you know, in high school, you know,” he explained. “So, we’re just, like, back and forth. And she thinks that’s funny.”
“I enjoy her company. If I’m working on a car, she’ll sit with a book and read. It was, and still is, very comfortable. Before she had this, I’d come home, she’d cook dinner for us, and we’d watch TV…now we can’t really talk about a lot of things,” he explained.
A big part of Leno’s job is just making her feel safe — and he never knows when he’ll need to do it.
“She’ll point to something and say, ‘What’s that?’ and say something that doesn’t quite make sense…She wants to be reassured that everything’s OK.’” Leno said.
She hasn’t lost the ability to show him that she loves him.
“I can see the smile. I can tell when she’s happy. And when she looks at me and smiles and says she loves me, I melt,” he gushed.
In May, actress Margaret Cho teared up when she recalled witnessing Leno taking care of Mavis at a comedy club.
“I brought my dog over, and Jay was leaning down and just kind of whispering in her ear,” she recalled. “Kind of just saying things like, ‘Oh, do you want to say hi to the dog?’ understanding that she had some difficulty with what was going on in the room and a little bit of confusion.”
She noted, “He was getting ahead of it by really quietly leaning over and just explaining to her what was happening.”
Cho was so struck by the moment.
“That’s love. I’m sure it could be so easy to put somebody who has dementia in a facility or put them at home when you can just go out,” she said. “But he’s bringing her around, and whenever she’s having a moment, he just leans down and explains what’s going on.”
“To me, that’s romance,” she said. “May that love find me. How beautiful.”
Read Next: Jay Leno Protects Wife as She Battles Dementia: ‘She Trusts Him’
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
– Content: +2Share:
– Content: +1