Jay Leno opened up about his latest mishap, in which he fell down a hill outside a Pennsylvania Hampton Inn last month, breaking his wrist and sustaining severe bruising. But the accident-prone 74-year-old is also shooting down conspiracy theories about his frequent misadventures.
"There's a lot of accidents in between you don't even hear about," Leno quipped on the Dec. 11 episode of the Spike's Car Radio podcast. In addition to his recent tumble, he famously suffered severe burns to his face and hands while working on one of his vintage cars in 2022. Then, just months later, he sustained several broken bones after getting clotheslined while riding a motorcycle.
"I came out of the hotel, I said, 'Where's a place to eat,'" Leno recalled of the series of events that led to his recent injury. An employee directed him to a local establishment, which was down a hill adjacent to the hotel. "I said, 'The restaurant's down there?' How do I get down there?' I didn't have a car," he explained. "I'll just go down this hill, it doesn't look that bad."
After those famous last words, Leno said he took one step and then immediately fell. "But here's the best part ... as I’m falling, I see these two elderly ladies—one of them goes, 'That looks like Jay Leno falling down the hill,'" he recalled. "The other goes, why would Jay Leno be in Greensburg? He lives in California!'"
"Then when I hit the ground they came over, my face is bleeding, they go, 'Oh, it is Jay Leno!,'" he joked, and said that the women then offered to give him a ride to the restaurant.
"What happened, I still went to get my chicken parm sandwich, I didn’t think it was that bad," he continued. "And then I'm sitting there and beep, this eye slams shut. I go, 'What?' I can't open it. I didn't know whether something happened. So the guy brings the chicken parm, he goes, 'Hey, you know, you don’t look that good.' I go in the men's room. 'Oh jeez, my face!'"
Leno said after he paid for his sandwich, he went to a nearby CVS and bought an eyepatch, since he still had to perform that night. The cashier took a selfie with Leno and his bruised face, which he said then turned up on Inside Edition.
As far as the conspiracy theories go, the former Tonight Show host said that "it's so stupid." Among the rumors floating around on the internet are that he's been targeted by the mob or owes gambling debts. Others questioned why Leno would stay in a budget hotel.
"It's a fine hotel," he said, noting that he had a gig the night before in Michigan and landed in Pennsylvania at 1:00 a.m. "I'm only going to be there for a few hours so I'm like, 'What's the nearest hotel?' It’s a Hilton!" he said, initially mistaking the Hampton Inn, adding "Why would I pay $1,100 a night?" for a Four Seasons. "If my wife was with me, I'd stay at a nice hotel."
Of the gambling debt theories, Leno retorted, "No, I've never gambled in my life ... I like that the mob would drive to Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to meet me on the top of a hill, and then throw me down the hill."
"That's why you travel alone, funny stuff happens," he added.
