Cindy Ord/Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesJay Leno is coming clean about his Tonight Show ban on the late Joan Rivers. In a new interview with Access Hollywood, the 64-year-old former late night host explained why he never had Rivers on the Tonight Show all those years after her feud with Johnny Carson.
"When Johnny did the show, he had a falling out with Joan Rivers and sort of banned her from the show. When you took over, you kept the ban alive. Joan never appeared. Why was that?" host Billy Bush asked.
"I didn't want to do it while Johnny was alive out of respect for Johnny," Leno said. "I don't think he wanted to see her on the show and that's why we didn't do it."
"And then after he passed was it just too awkward at that point?" Bush responded.
"It got a little awkward by that point," Leno admitted. "Joan was sort of going on and on about me, and I thought, 'Let's let the ground lie fallow for a while and see what happens,' but she always kind of kept it going. And I like Joan. I mean that was the first autograph I ever got was Joan Rivers. I'm a comedian, I went to see her at the Chateau De Ville in Framingham and we were friends, and by then it just got to be awkward and we just never did it."
Rivers wasn't the only late comedian Leno reflected on. He also opened up about his good friend Robin Williams, who took his own life this past summer. "Robin was a good friend of mine," Leno recounted. "I was there when Robin auditioned at The Improv."
"I always liked Robin. I love Robin," Leno dished. "He was a good comic. Never trashed other comedians. Never got involved in any trash talking, that kind of nonsense. He was very supportive, always helped out young performers. And homeless people. He was a really decent, decent guy who obviously had a lot of demons. I mean, he fought that fight every day, but you only have to lose that fight once. You can fight every day and win but if you lose once, that was the sad part."