Jay Leno jokes about his new face two years after burn accident

Jay Leno attends the 6th Annual Daytime Beauty Awards at Autry Museum of the American West on September 30, 2024 in Los Angeles. Photo / Robin L Marshall / Getty Images

Television host Jay Leno has joked his new face is “better” than his old one, two years after suffering burns in a car fire.

The 74-year-old late-night legend experienced severe second-degree facial burns in a gasoline fire in November 2022. Two months later, he broke his collarbone and two ribs in a motorcycle crash.

“My recovery was nine days. I missed two days of work, so it was not bad. Better than the face I had, so I’ll take it,” the long-time car enthusiast told E! News while reflecting on the initial incident.

Adding that he hoped the “next chapter” won’t include his “next accident”, the former The Tonight Show host had a promising outlook on life in his 70s.

“It’s good. Things are good. I can’t complain. I just write jokes, tell jokes, get checked. Very simple process,” he said.

Leno also credited his wife Mavis Leno with his happiness, adding: “I’ve been very lucky. I’ve been married to the same woman 45 years. [The secret is] don’t screw around - pretty simple.”

The TV star and comedian appeared at the Daytime Beauty Awards on Monday to present his surgeon, Dr Peter Grossman, with an Outstanding Achievement in Medicine prize.

Speaking on stage, he recalled heading to the burn centre after he was hit with “a face full of gasoline” and caught fire, before realising his wife - who has been diagnosed with dementia - didn’t know where he was.

“I drive home, I see my wife and I go to sleep, not realising this is still burning,” he recalled.

“When I wake up, I can’t get the pillow off my face. So, I’m sitting there with scissors trying to cut the pillow off. So, Dr Grossman took the pillow off my face.”

Jay Leno pictured with staff from the Grossman Burns Centre after being discharged from hospital in November 2022. Photo / Grossman Burns Centre

After recovering from successful facial surgery, Leno soon required further treatment after his second brutal accident.

“I’m riding my motorcycle and a guy had a wire across the road, and boom, it tore my face,” he continued.

“I called Dr Grossman and I said, ‘Listen, I need another face. The other face you got was great, but I just need another’.

“So I guess I am officially a two-faced b*****d now.”

In late January it was revealed Leno had filed in court for a conservatorship over his wife Mavis after 44 years of marriage, citing her diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease.

A source told TMZ that Mavis’ diagnosis with the debilitating disease formed “the basis of the conservatorship”.

It is unclear how long ago Mavis, 77, found out about her condition.

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Just over a month after Leno’s horror car accident, the star opened up about the incident in an interview with the Today Show, revealing the car’s fuel line was “clogged”.

“I was underneath [the car]. It sounded clogged and I said, ‘Blow some air through the line’, and so [his friend Dave] did ... Suddenly, boom, I got a face full of gas.

“And then the pilot light jumped and my face caught on fire. And I said to my friend, I said, ‘Dave, I’m on fire’. And Dave’s like, ‘All right’.

”I said, ‘No, Dave, I’m on fire’. And then, ‘Oh, my god’. Dave, my friend, pulled me out and jumped on top of me and kind of smothered the fire.”

He later revealed he refused to take pain medication despite his injuries, claiming: “The pain is a reminder that I’m an idiot.”

“I’m not a panicky guy, but I knew if I breathed in I could scorch my lungs,” he told People. “I was under the car maybe 10 seconds before Dave pulled me out. Any longer than that I could have lost my eye.”

Leno was the host of NBC’s talk show The Tonight Show from 1992 until 2009, and again from 2010 until 2014.

- Additional reporting by NZ Herald.