- The Washington Times - Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Comedian Jay Leno left the hospital black and blue this week after falling down a 60-foot hill on his way to dinner.

He suffered bruising on the left side of his body and face and sported an eyepatch when speaking with reporters on Monday. Mr. Leno apparently lost a fingernail and broke his wrist, with his left eye swollen shut. 

The hill tumble occurred just before a scheduled performance near Pittsburgh on Saturday, when Mr. Leno was walking to a restaurant near the Hilton Hotel where he was staying.

He said he didn’t have a car at the time and hotel staff provided him with walking directions that would have taken too long. So he took a shortcut down a nearby hill. 

“The hill doesn’t look that steep,” Mr. Leno told TMZ. “About 60, 70 feet. Let me see if I can go down there … and then I fell down, boom, boom, boom.”

Though the fall left the former “Tonight Show” host sore, he said it was no “big deal” and performed a set that evening. 

Mr. Leno, 74, is no stranger to serious injuries.

In 2022, he suffered severe burns to his body and face after a fire in his home garage. A car collector, he was working on an auto when the fire started.

Not long after that, he sustained a broken collarbone, two cracked kneecaps and two cracked ribs in a motorcycle collision.

• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.

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