Jay Leno shares health update after being seen wearing an eye patch with bruised face
Jay Leno took a fall that left him wearing an eye patch.
The former talk show host revealed in an interview with TMZ Monday (November 18) that he fell down a hill while walking from his hotel to a restaurant.
“To get to it, I didn’t have a car, so you had to walk about a mile and a half around. I said, ‘Well, the hill doesn’t look that steep. It’s about 60-70 feet. Let me see if I can go down the hill,’” he told the outlet.
“I fell down. Boom, boom, boom. I rolled down the hill, hit my head on a rock, knocked me in the eye,” he added as he lifted his eye patch to show that his eye was swollen shut.
Leno still had a show to perform at the Yaamava’ Casino in Southern California shortly after the fall happened, so he decided to hold off on receiving medical attention until after the show.
“When I came back to LA, I went to the hospital,” he said. “It was only a couple of hours after the show, so. It’s not that big of a deal, it’s fine!”
“The great thing about this age [is] you don’t learn by your mistakes, you just keep doing the same stupid thing,” the former Tonight Show host said, seemingly referring to his multiple accidents throughout the last few years.
Back in 2022, Leno had to cancel a scheduled appearance at a Las Vegas financial conference after receiving “serious burns” in a gasoline fire.
“I got some serious burns from a gasoline fire. I am ok. Just need a week or two to get back on my feet,” he told Variety at the time.
It was later revealed that Leno was working in his garage when one of his cars spontaneously burst into flames and left him with second and third-degree burns. The former talk show host was taken to Grossman Burn Center and received skin graft surgeries on his chest, hands, and face.
Leno was involved in another accident in January 2023 after he fell off of a motorcycle and suffered several broken bones.
“I’ve got a broken collarbone. I’ve got two broken ribs. I’ve got two cracked kneecaps,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal at the time.
“But I’m OK!” Leno attempted to reassure fans who were concerned “I’m OK, I’m working. I’m working this weekend.”
Leno had been test-driving a 1940 Indian motorcycle when he began smelling a gasoline leak. “So 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,” Leno said.
“So, you know, I didn’t see it until it was too late. It just clotheslines me and, boom, knocked me off the bike.”