Former The Tonight Show host Jay Leno was recently seen sporting some serious injuries, such has half his face being entirely bruised and his eye swollen shut, having a broken wrist and losing an entire fingernail.
According to the 74-year-old former late-night TV stalwart, the injuries are from “falling down a 60-foot hill.” Leno says the incident happened near a Hampton Inn hotel that’s about “30 miles outside of Pittsburgh” on Saturday, November 16.
Leno claims he was walking to dinner before his show and decided to take a shortcut down a 60-foot-steep hill, where he fell and sustained the injuries.
Comedian Jay Leno says his eye is swollen after he fell down a 60 foot hill. pic.twitter.com/FVbzOFU5Fl
— Inside Edition (@InsideEdition) November 19, 2024
The nature of Leno’s injuries, however, have left people on social media feeling extremely suspicious, with many joking that they’re the sort of injuries you’d see gangster doles out to clients who owe them money, particularly the missing fingernail.
“Them damn loan shark injuries lmaoo,” said Den of Thieves 2: Pantera star O’Shea Jackson Jr.
“That brother is in deep gambling debt,” said a viral tweet with over 23 million views.
“Jay Leno, who is worth half a billion dollars, ‘stayed at a Hampton Inn’ and ‘fell down a hill.’ Something just ain’t adding up,” said another viral post with over 10 million views.
Live footage of Jay Leno “falling down a hill” https://t.co/8GqqVmtDqf pic.twitter.com/I9dI6u6UPr
— GeoffinLincoln (@GeoffinLincoln) November 20, 2024
POV: You are Jay Leno and having a relaxing time at the Hampton Inn pic.twitter.com/0vE1cs1Ojs
— Mike Beauvais (@MikeBeauvais) November 20, 2024
Leno, who retired from hosting The Tonight Show (for the second time) in 2014, has a reported net worth in the neighborhood of half-a-billion dollars, leaving some people wondering why he’s staying in a motel in the Pittsburgh suburbs when he can clearly afford much better.
This is just one of a handful of instances of Leno getting injured in bizarre circumstances in recent years, as he was severely burned in a garage fire in 2022 and then got in a motorcycle accident that resulted in multiple broken bones the following year.