Johnny Carson's 4 Wives: A Look Back at the Late TV Host's Marriages (and Why He Said He Never Gave 'As Much' to His Relationships as to His Show)

Mar. 15, 2025

Johnny Carson with his first wife Jody Wolcott at their home in Encino, California, circa 1955 ; Johnny Carson and Alexis Maas attend an event on September 21, 1983 in Beverly Hills, California.Photo:Archive Photos/Getty ; Marissa Roth/WWD/Penske Media via Getty

Archive Photos/Getty ; Marissa Roth/WWD/Penske Media via Getty

Johnny Carson, beloved host ofThe Tonight Show, famously joked about his difficulties in love, casting the blame, at one point, on his most iconic role.

“If I had given as much to marriage as I gave toThe Tonight Show,I’d probably have a hell of a marriage,” he once said, per PEOPLE.

Prior to becoming a household name as a pillar of late-night television, Carson married Joan “Jody” Wolcott in 1949 after they met as students at the University of Nebraska. The pairwelcomed three sons and split in 1963.

Carson and Holland split in 1985, and he married his fourth and final wife, Alexis Maas, in 1987. Producer George Schlatter told PEOPLE in 2005 that “the real love of [Carson’s] life was Alex.”

Carson retired fromThe Tonight Showin May of 1992 and lived quietly with Maas until his death 20 years ago from emphysema at age 79.

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

Joan “Jody” Morrill Wolcott

Johnny Carson and wife Jody Wolcott pose with their sons Christopher, Richard, and Cory at their home in Encino, California.Hulton Archive/Getty

Hulton Archive/Getty

Carson married Joan “Jody” Morrill Wolcott on Oct. 3, 1949, according to their wedding announcement inTheLincoln Star. The couple met at the University of Nebraska where she was a member of the Phi Beta Phi sorority.

Carson and Wolcott welcomed three children together during their relationship: Richard, Christopher and Cory.

In the 2024 biographyCarson the Magnificent, authors Bill Zehme and Mike Thomas claimed that Carson’s marriage to Wolcott was tumultuous. “There would be boozy rows aplenty — some in front of other couples — or long silent stews of resentment or recrimination or shame," they wrote, perFox News.

Carson and Wolcott divorced in 1963, after 14 years of marriage, following his appointment as host ofThe Tonight Showin October 1962 and subsequent rise to fame.

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

Joanne Copeland

Johnny Carson and Joanne Copeland toast each other after their surprise wedding.Hyman Rothman/NY Daily News Archive via Getty

Hyman Rothman/NY Daily News Archive via Getty

Carson married model and television host Joanne Copeland in 1963.

The couple had their first date in 1960 when she was working as a stewardess for Pan American World Airways. Their paths had already crossed, though — Copeland toldThe New York Timesthat her father first met Carson in a jazz club and attempted to set the two up.

Copeland and Carson began their courtship at the same time he was beginning his tenure onThe Tonight Show. Copeland loved Carson’s first tapes when he was standing in as host and encouraged him to take on the position full-time.

In a 2007 interview withThe New York Times,she recalled Carson’s misgivings about taking on his most famed role. “He said, ‘It frightens me to take it, because I think I might lose you,’ ” said Copeland. “I said: ‘Are you crazy? You couldn’t lose me if you tried.’ ”

However, Copeland did eventually credit the show with playing a part in ending their marriage. She claimed toThe New York Timesthat Carson expected her to act as a conduit between him and the staff. “I took the brunt of everything,” she said. Copeland was also quoted inCarson the Magnificentspeaking about Carson’s struggles with alcohol.

The pair divorced in 1972 and Copeland later recalled Carson joking about their separation. “After our divorce he said, ‘She left me with a hassock and a hair net,’ ” she said. “I’m going to remember that forever.”

The former CBS host left the marriage with something much more valuable, though: the first recordings of him standing in as the host ofThe Tonight Show, the tapes that Copeland had fallen in love with a decade prior.

In 2007, two years after Carson’s death, Copeland found the tapes and released them as theJohnny Carson Showon DVD allowing audiences a peek into Carson’s early years while he workshopped the hosting format that would go on to define American late-night television.

Copeland spent her later years as a holistic therapist and died on May 8, 2015.

Joanna Holland

Johnny Carson and Joanna Holland.Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Holland and Carson married in 1972, the same year that he and Copeland divorced.

The pair met in 1971 at the 21 Club in New York, where he later recalled to PEOPLE he was “flirting like a sophomore.” Holland was one of New York’s highest-paid models at the time and had been divorced from former World Backgammon Champion Tim Holland since 1966. When they met, she was living with her son Tim in a small apartment. Carson and Holland spent their first date celebrating his 46th birthday, after which, he proceeded to call her every day at 4:30 pm for a year.

But, the pair ran into trouble whenThe Tonight Showwas moved from New York to California. Holland was a die-hard New Yorker and didn’t want to make the move, but Carson allegedly demanded it. “You’re coming to California with Tim and we’re going to be married,” she recalled him saying.

The pair moved to Burbank, Calif., where they threw dinner parties and screenings with a close-knit group of friends. Holland didn’t have the keen interest in Carson’s work that Copeland had. “I don’t have that much to say about Johnny’s work,” she said. “It’s not my place."

However, she, too, claimed to have experienced the effects of Carson’s tumultuous relationship with alcohol. Holland spoke about Carson’s drinking in the biographyCarson the Magnificent.

In a 1979 interview with60 Minutes, Carson admitted to his temper when drinking. “And when I did drink — rather than a lot of people who become fun-loving, gregarious, and love everybody — I would go just the opposite,” he said. “And it would happen just like that!”

The couple divorced in 1985.

Alexis Maas

Johnny Carson and Alexis Maas.® Berliner Studio / BEImages

® Berliner Studio / BEImages

A few years before his retirement fromThe Tonight Showin May 1992, Carson married one last time to Alexis Maas 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.

Maas and Carson allegedly met in Malibu, when he saw her on the beach. They loved to travel, with Carson reportedly taking on a love of language later in life, learning Swahili for trips to Africa.

According to Judge William Hogoboom, who oversaw one of Carson’s divorces and his last marriage, the host’s relationship with Maas was a quiet affair.

“He wanted to avoid publicity. There was nobody at the wedding—just his brother, Dick, my wife and me outside his home in Malibu, overlooking the Pacific Ocean," he told PEOPLE in 1992. “They had a speaker phone hookup, so the bride’s father and mother—on the East Coast, I believe—could hear. Her father gave her away. Johnny didn’t muff his lines. Oh, yes, they kissed.”

The two lived together in California until his death from emphysema in 2005 at age 79.

source: people.com