Jay Leno, the former Tonight Show host, is recovering after a fall that left him badly bruised. The 74-year-old comedian tumbled down a 60-foot hill on Saturday night, suffering injuries to his face and body.
Leno explained that the accident happened near a Hampton Inn about 30 miles outside Pittsburgh. He was walking to a nearby restaurant before a scheduled performance when the incident occurred. Without access to a car, he decided to take a shortcut down the hill instead of following a longer walking route suggested by the hotel staff.
“The hill didn’t look that steep—about 60, 70 feet. I thought, ‘Let me see if I can go down there,’ and then boom, boom, boom,” Leno joked in an interview with TMZ. He added that he hit several rocks during the fall.
The injuries were significant. Leno broke his wrist, lost a fingernail, and suffered severe bruising on the left side of his body and face.
His left eye was swollen shut, requiring him to wear a patch. Despite this, Leno performed just three hours later. He only sought medical treatment after returning home to Los Angeles.
When asked about the ordeal, Leno brushed it off. “It isn’t a big deal, it’s alright,” he told reporters.
This incident adds to a series of accidents Leno has experienced in recent years. In November 2022, he suffered severe burns to his face, chest, and hands in a garage fire while working on one of his cars.
Just a few months later, he was involved in a motorbike crash that left him with a broken collarbone, two fractured ribs, and cracked kneecaps.
Reflecting on his streak of misfortunes, Leno joked, “The great thing about this age is that you don’t learn by your mistakes—you just keep doing the same stupid things.”
Despite his injuries, Leno remains committed to his work. On Wednesday, he will perform at a charity event benefiting the Grossman Burn Center, the hospital that treated him after last year’s fire.
