All about Johnny Carson’s 4 wives

The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson was married four times.

Before he became a household name as a pillar in the TV evening, Johnny married Joan “Jody” Morrill Wolcott in 1949 after they met as students at the University of Nebraska. The couple welcomed three sons and split in 1963.

The year after Johnny took on the mantle The Tonight Show In 1962 he met and married model and TV host Joanne Carson (Née Copeland), who encouraged him to play full-time. She and Johnny divorced in 1972.

Comedian married model Joanna Carson (Née Holland) the same year, and the couple lived together in New York with their son until The Tonight ShowMove to California put a burden on their marriage. Johnny and Joanna shared in 1985, and she died in July 2025.

“If I had given as much to the marriage as I gave to The Tonight ShowThe I would probably have a hell of a marriage“He said once per people.

Johnny married his fourth and last wife, Alexis Maas, 1987. Producer George Schlatter told People 2005 that “the real love for (Johnny’s) Life was Alex.”

He retired from The Tonight Show In May 1992 and lived silently with Alexis until his death in 2005 from emphysema at the age of 79.

Here is a look at Johnny Carson’s four wives.

Joan “Jody” Morrill Wolcott

Johnny married Jody on October 3, 1949, according to their wedding message in The Lincoln Star. The couple met at the University of Nebraska where she was a member of the Phi Beta Phi Sorority.

Johnny and Jody welcomed three children together under their relationship: Richard, Christopher and Cory.

In the biography 2024 Carson the magnificentThe authors Bill Zehme and Mike Thomas claimed that Johnny’s marriage to Jody was turmoil. “There would be Boozy rows in abundance – some in front of other couples – or long silent pots of indignation or prosecution or shame,” they wrote per Fox News.

Johnny and Jody divorced in 1963, after 14 years of marriage, after his appointment as host for The Tonight Show in October 1962 and subsequent increase to fame.

The couple’s children, photographer Richard, died on June 24, 1991, at the age of 39, following a car accident in California, according to New York Times.

Joanne Carson

Johnny and Joanne got married in 1963.

The couple had their first date in 1960 when she worked as a Stewardess for Pan American World Airways. However, their roads had already crossed – Joanne said New York Times That her father first met Johnny in a jazz club and tried to set up the two.

For starters, Joanne was skeptical that they could make a relationship work because she was a TV host in her own right for another network. According to New York Timesshe was first hosted for an early game show from the 1960s called VideoBy. When he tried to set them up, she said to her father, “He is daytime at ABC? I work for CBS. I don’t associate with people on TV during the day.” However, it took a long time for the couple to become inseparable.

Johnny and Joanne began their prison at the same time as he began their service at The Tonight Show. Joanne loved Johnny’s first band when he was hosting and encouraged him to take on the position full time.

In an interview from 2007 with New York Times, She recalled Johnny’s concern about taking on her most famous role. “He said,” It scares me to take it, because I think I can lose you, “said Joanne.” I said, “Are you crazy? You couldn’t lose me if you tried.”

However, Joanne eventually credited the show with playing a role in ending her marriage. She said New York Times that Johnny expected her to act as a leadership between him and the staff. “I took the breaking of everything,” she said. Joanne was also cited in Carson the magnificent Talk about Johnny struggling with alcohol.

The couple divorced in 1972 and Joanne later recalled Johnny who joked about their separation. “After our divorce, he said,” She left me with a hazard chef and a hair net, “she said. I will remember it forever.”

However, the former CBS host left the marriage with something much more valuable: the first recordings of him that were hosting The Tonight ShowThe bands that Joanne had been in love for a decade earlier.

2007, two years after Johnny’s dead, found Joanne bands and released them as Johnny Carson Show On DVD that allows the audience, a look into Johnny’s early years while working on the host format that would continue to define American television night.

After their split, Joanne was hosted for her own syndicated show, Joanne Carson’s VIP. She also continued further education and received a master’s degree in psychology and a doctorate in nutritional biochemistry and physiology. She went on to get married and divorce from Richard Rever and had a very close friendship with the author Truman Capote. Joanne was Portrait of Molly Ringwald In FX’s 2024 series FEUD: Capote versus the swans.

Later, she told People that Johnny remained faith in her roots and was “a little boy from the Midwest with impeccable ways.” After Johnny died January 23, 2005, Joanne described her feelings about his loss. “The pain with this is to the leg. To the leg,” she said.

Joanne spent her recent years as a holistic therapist and died on May 8, 2015.

Joanna Carson

Johnny and Joanna married in 1972, the same year he and Joanne divorced.

The couple met in 1971 at the 21 club in New York, where he later recalled for people he was “flirting as a second. “Joanna was one of New York’s highest paid models at that time and had been divorced from former World Backgammon champion Tim Holland since 1966. When they met, she lived with her son Tim in a small apartment.

But the couple encountered problems when The Tonight Show was moved from New York to California. Joanna was a deadly New Yorker and did not want to make the move, but Johnny demanded it. “You come to California with Tim, and we will get married,” she reminded him and said.

The couple moved to Burbank, California, where they threw dinners and views with a close composite group of friends. Joanna did not have the interest in Johnny’s work that Joanne had. “I don’t have much to say about Johnny’s work,” she said. “It’s not my place.”

However, she claimed to have experienced the effects of Johnny’s tumultuous relationship with alcohol. Joanna talked about Johnny drinks in the biography Carson the magnificent.

In an interview from 1979 with 60 minutesJohnny admitted his mood when he drinks. “And when I drink-scarre than many people who become fun loving, Gregarious and love everyone-would I go the opposite,” he said. “And it would happen just like that!”

The couple divorced in 1985.

Joanna died in July 2025, according to Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, who acknowledged her death in a service Facebook. She was preceded in death by her son, who died in 1994.

Alexis Maas

A few years before his retirement from The Tonight Show In May 1992, Johnny married one last time with Alexis in 1987.

“As much as he loved that show and loved jokes. I think the real love of his life was Alex,” Schlatter told People in 2005.

Alexis and Johnny met were alleged in Malibu, when he saw her on the beach. They loved to travel, with Johnny who reportedly took a love for language later in life and taught Swahili for trips to Africa.

According to Judge William Hogoboom, who monitored one of Johnny’s divorce and his last marriage, the host’s relationship with Alexis was a silent deal.

“He wanted to avoid publicity. There was no one in the wedding – just his brother, Dick, my wife and me outside his home in Malibu, overlooking the Pacific,” he told people in 1992. “They had a speaker phone, so the bride’s father and mother – on the east coast, I think – could hear. Her father gave her away. Muff, so the bride’s father and mom – on the east coast, I could hear.

The two lived together in California until their death from Emfysem 2005 at the age of 79.