After tying the knot in 1980 and sharing 44 years of marriage, on Saturday (NZT) Jay Leno filed for a conservatorship in court over his wife, Mavis Leno.

The iconic American household name and celebrity, who was the host for NBC’s talk show The Tonight Show from 1992 until 2009 and again from 2010 until 2014, filed for the conservatorship as a result of Mavis being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, according to TMZ.

A source told the outlet that diagnosis of the debilitating disease is “the basis of the conservatorship”.

It is unclear how long ago Mavis Leno, 77, had found out about her condition.

Jay Leno’s filing for a conservatorship means that a hearing will now need to take place, which has been scheduled for April 9.

Jay, 73, and Mavis had their first brief encounter after she attended one of his comedy shows at the Comedy Store comedy club in Los Angeles in the 1970s, reported People.

The next week, the pair were formally introduced to each other by mutual friends and have been together ever since.

Although Jay Leno had said that he “wasn’t very good at dating,” the couple eventually married in 1980.

In 1987, Mavis Leno discussed her shifting views on what marriage meant to her during a profile on her husband.

“I always had this idea that I would never get married … But with Jay, I began to realise that this was the first time I was ever with someone where I had a perfect, calm sense of having arrived at my destination,” she said at the time.

The Lenos never had kids of their own, a decision in which Mavis Leno takes “full credit”.

“I remember telling my mother when I was 7 or 8 that I was never going to get married or have children,” she said in a 2014 interview with the Washington Post.

“To me, this is the way women get caught.”

Jay Leno was seriously injured in two separate accidents in November 2022 and January 2023. The first incident involved one of his cars bursting into flames which left the television host with third-degree burns on his face and hands, while the second one saw him break multiple bones in a motorcycle crash.

Mavis Leno had supported him all the way through his recovery and return to work.

The comedian later jokingly said that his “brand-new face” looked “better than what was there before”.