took a tumble over the weekend and he has the bruises to prove it.
The former late night host, 74, stepped out several times this week with a massive bruise taking up half of his face.
He first spoke to reporters about the situation before a show in Beverly Hills on Monday, November 18, when he explained the patch over his left eye and why he was “all black and blue.”
Leno says he was staying at a Hampton Inn near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania last weekend when he decided to walk to a nearby restaurant. After trying to take a shortcut down a hill, he fell, resulting in not only his visible facial injuries, but a broken wrist and lost fingernail.
He added that despite hitting “a bunch of rocks,” he was still able to perform that night, just a few hours later, telling reporters that he didn’t want to disappoint the 26,000 people who had bought tickets to his three shows. Leno sought treatment at a Los Angeles hospital when he returned home.
“Well, I said, ‘The hill doesn’t look that steep, maybe 60 to 70 feet,’” he recounted to TMZ. “‘Let me see if I can go down the hill.’ And then I fell down and boom, boom.”
But don’t worry, he also said, “It isn’t a big deal, it’s alright.”
Leno added that he didn’t have a car with him in Pittsburgh and the route the hotel staff suggested he take was about a mile and a half long, hence his attempt at a shortcut.
Leno’s fall comes two years after he suffered severe burns to his face and body when a fire broke out as he was working in his home garage. He was treated at LA’s Grossman Burn Center for the injuries he sustained while working on one of his cars.
At a show shortly after he left the hospital, he humorously referred to himself as “a roast comic.”
“We got two shows tonight, regular and extra crispy,” he quipped.
Months after that, Leno broke his collarbone, two ribs and both kneecaps in a motorbike accident.
“When you look like me, you don’t really worry about what you look like,” he joked after the accident. “Look, if I’m , it’s going to be a huge problem. But they said it would be alright so, you know my attitude is I trust people who are the best to do what they do.”
Despite yet another setback, Leno has kept his sense of humor.
“The great thing about this age is that you don’t learn by your mistakes – you just keep doing the same stupid things,” he said.
