A legendary comic and chat show host is now battered after falling 60ft down a hill.
Comedian Jay Leno, 74, sustained the injuries while he was staying on the outskirts of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania on Saturday night (November 16). The funnyman was also hit with numerous swellings around his left eye and much of the rest of his body as he miraculously survived the fall.
Speaking to American TV channel CBS, Jay was spotted walking the streets of Los Angeles on Tuesday (November 19) when he was seen by fans, who were left horrified by his bruises. The injuries were so bad that Hollywood icon Jay has been reduced to wearing an eye-patch in order to help speed up the recovery.
READ MORE: TV host Jay Leno suffers 'serious face burns' after car 'erupts in flames'
Click for more brilliant Daily Star showbiz stories
In an interview with the TV channel, Jay explained: "I broke my wrist, lost a nail on my finger - and then I'm all black and blue," as he gestured to the left-hand side of his body. The swelling around his eye was so bad that his eye was swollen shut.
The comedian explained that he had been staying in a Hampton Inn roughly 30 miles (48km) on the outskirts of Pittsburgh ahead of a show he was due to perform at. According to the late night chat show host, he was particularly hungry and wanted to have a meal before he headed to the gig.
Having spotted a restaurant around 1.5 miles away from the hotel, Jay was not willing walk the distance on the road itself, instead opting to take a shortcut. However, little did he know the shortcut took him down the hill at a steep gradient.
Explaining his initial judgment of the hill, Jay recalled: "Well I said, 'The hill doesn't look that steep. Let me take a,'" before losing his footing and tumbling down the hill. He added that he hit "a bunch of rocks" on his way down, which also caused significant damage to his body.
However, Jay - a notorious workaholic - was determined not to let the fall cause him to lose out on income, and so carried on with his show just three hours later. This came despite the fact he was already suffering from rather bad swelling at the time.
This is not the first near-fatal incident to hit the comedian in recent years, as in November 2022 he was severely burned in a fire that broke out in his garage. Jay was particularly injured, and required him to get cosmetic surgery, eventually being given a "new ear" thanks to processes such as skin grafts.
The comedian was treated at the Grossman Burn Centre in Los Angeles following the horrific incident, where he received hyperbaric therapy for his injuries. Still unable to give up his work following his dramatic fall, the presenter went on to perform at a charity event in order to raise vital funds for the centre less than 72 hours after his near-death experience.
For more of the latest showbiz and TV news from the Daily Star, make sure you sign up for one of our newsletters here.
English (US) ·