Jay Leno Shrugs Off String of Injuries: ‘People Get Banged Up in Real Jobs All the Time’

Jay Leno Shrugs Off String of Injuries: ‘People Get Banged Up in Real Jobs All the Time’

Jay Leno has endured more than his fair share of injuries in recent years—a garage fire, a motorcycle crash, and a 60-foot fall—but the former late night host isn’t making a big deal out of it.

Appearing on In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Leno downplayed his string of mishaps with characteristic humor. “People get banged up in real jobs all the time,” he quipped when asked about his injuries.

One of the most dramatic incidents occurred last year, when Leno fell 60 feet down a hill outside a hotel in Pennsylvania, hitting his head on a rock. Despite a broken wrist and a severely bruised face, he still took the stage that night. “I had a show to do,” Leno said. “What are you gonna say, ‘Oh, I banged my head?’”

When Bensinger pointed out that his eye had swollen shut, Leno recalled thinking he might be blind. “Alright, well, I’m still gonna be a comedian. Just a comedian with one eye,” he joked. Fortunately, the swelling subsided a few days later.

“I broke my wrist, maybe cracked something, but not too bad,” he added. “My face got really bashed in.”

Leno said he doesn’t feel pain while performing. “You see it all the time—guys coughing backstage and then nothing once they’re onstage. Something just changes,” he explained.

That wasn’t his only brush with serious injury. In 2022, a gas fire in his garage left him with severe burns to his face, chest, and hands, requiring skin grafts and over a week in a burn unit. Still, Leno said the hardest part of that ordeal was “answering the phone.”

Mimicking the flood of concerned calls, he said, “‘I’m fine! Yeah, I’m fine. Okay, thanks. Hello? Yeah, I’m fine!’ Every 10 minutes, someone from high school would call.”

Even that incident barely slowed him down. “I missed two shows and was out for about nine days,” he said.

Then in 2023, Leno suffered yet another accident—this time on a motorcycle. He fractured his collarbone, broke two ribs, and cracked both kneecaps. Still, he took it in stride. “I could still stand, so it was okay,” he said.

With a face already damaged from the fire, Leno joked about returning to his surgeon. “I had to call my face guy—‘Hey, I need another face!’ But it looks good. You can’t tell. He did a great job.”

The series of accidents even sparked wild rumors that Leno had been assaulted by the mob over gambling debts—rumors he laughed off during an appearance on Club Random. “I love the idea that the Mob would drive to Greensburg, Pennsylvania, wait outside a Hampton Inn on a sleety day just to throw me down a hill,” he said.

And if he did owe money? “They’d just take one of my cars,” Leno added, referring to his vast collection of classic automobiles worth an estimated half-billion dollars.

Despite it all, Leno remains unfazed—and firmly committed to the show going on.

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