Veteran late-night TV host and comedian Jay Leno on Friday filed for a conservatorship over the estate of his wife of 43 years, Mavis Leno, after she was diagnosed with dementia, according to California court documents.
The petition, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and obtained by “Entertainment Tonight,” outlined 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.”
The court documents said that Leno “has always handled the couple’s finances throughout” their marriage, and he seeks to create a trust for their joint estate that would “ensure Mavis has managed assets sufficient to provide for her care” should he die before her.
File/THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON/Jay Leno and Mavis Leno on December 31, 1990 — (Joseph Del Valle/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
File/ Jay Leno, Mavis Leno arrive at the 50th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, CA on September 13, 1998 — (Margaret C. Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Leno’s estate plan will also provide for Mavis’s brother, who is “her sole living heir aside from Jay.” The couple does not have children.
A hearing on the matter is scheduled for April 9.
Various news outlets including “Entertainment Tonight” and CBS News reached out to Leno’s representation for comment.
TMZ was first to report the news.