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Johnny Carson dominated late-night TV for over 30 years, but when cameras stopped rolling, he privately struggled with drinking and three doomed marriages.
The iconic host, who was known for being fiercely private, is the subject of a new biography that was 20 years in the making, “Carson the Magnificent.”
Written by Bill Zehme before his death in 2023 and Mike Thomas, it explores how an aspiring magician from Nebraska became the host of “The Tonight Show.” It also details Carson’s troubling relationship with alcohol that impacted his spouses.
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Johnny Carson, seen here in the 1980s, is the subject of a new biography that aims to explore his little-known private life. (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
“He had major problems with alcohol, especially early on, that turned him into a demon,” Thomas claimed to Fox News Digital. “There are instances where he becomes violent, and he just turns on a dime, and it didn’t even take that much.”
According to the book, Carson’s first marriage to Jody Wolcott was volatile. And Wolcott wasn’t shy about getting a rise from her spouse by flirting with other men.
“There would be boozy rows aplenty — some in front of other couples — or long silent stews of resentment or recrimination or shame,” Zehme wrote in his book, noting that when alcohol was involved, “they both would act out, very badly.”
“He had major problems with alcohol, especially early on, that turned him into a demon. There are instances where he becomes violent, and he just turns on a dime, and it didn’t even take that much.”
Johnny Carson and wife Jody Wolcott are shown in the backyard of their home in Encino, Calif., in the 1950s. (Getty Images)
“She would reportedly dance on tabletops at parties, taunt and ooze caustic sarcasm, and flirt recklessly enough to provoke red-hot demons within him,” Zehme wrote.
“And, if suitably lubricated (it never took more than a couple pops for him to achieve blotto), those demons went on a rampage, and whomever he had been only moments prior would be instantly displaced by an unrecognizable hellion so utterly possessed that he would never quite know the havoc wrought by this doppelgänger… Who had seemed to be him… but it was never really him… except of course it was.”
“Occasionally he would wake the next day to discover that some such havoc had bruised the flesh of his sons’ mother,” Zehme claimed. “And, in those moments of grim reckoning, nobody could presume to fathom the depths of mortification and self-disgust that metastasized inside of him.”
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Johnny Carson with his first wife Jody Wolcott and their sons (left to right) Christopher, Cory and Richard at their home in Encino, California, circa 1955. (Archive Photos/Getty Images)
Carson and Wolcott tied the knot in 1949, and they shared three sons. The pair each had affairs before they called it quits in 1963.
Thomas told Fox News Digital that Carson’s turbulent marriages seemed to stem from the “rough relationship” he had with his mother.
“The psychology saying is, ‘If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother,’” Thomas explained. “She was… emotionally withholding. She never expressed pride in him and his relationship with her bled into his relationships with women.”
“Carson the Magnificent” is available now. (Simon & Schuster)
Carson’s second marriage was to Joanne Copeland in 1963. According to the book, she described his drinking as “a nightmare” as she came face-to-face with a Jekyll and Hyde figure.
“I was married to two different people,” said Copeland, as quoted in the book. “He became a tiger… He had a low tolerance. He had blackouts.”
Copeland claimed that Carson would come home and rip off the sheets while she was sleeping.
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Johnny Carson and his second wife Joanne Copeland, mid 1960s. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
“He’d say, ‘I’m working my a– off, and you’re sleeping in bed,’” she recalled. “This is three in the morning. I was dealing with two people. He had a tremendous anger about women that would come out.”
In the mornings, Carson would be deeply remorseful, telling Copeland, “I don’t know what gets into me… I just can’t drink. I hate that I do this to you,” the book claimed.
Copeland repeatedly forgave him. The pair entertained “mini-separations” and Copeland consulted a therapist, but the damage was done. The couple divorced in 1972.
Johnny Carson and Joanne Copeland got divorced in 1972. (Getty Images)
That same year, Carson married wife no. 3 – Joanna Holland. Alcohol was, once again, to blame for their marital woes.
“During that black drunk phase, I was scared,” Holland was quoted as saying in the book. “Sometimes anything could set him off. Those were the scary times… I tried. I really tried.”
Carson admitted in a 1979 interview with “60 Minutes” that “I just did not drink well.”
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Johnny Carson and his third wife, Joanna Holland, married in 1972. They called it quits in 1985. (Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Getty Images)
“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,” said Carson. “And it would happen just like that!”
It was during his marriage to Holland that Carson pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of driving over the legal limit in 1982. He was fined $603 and placed on three years of probation.
The couple divorced in 1985.
Johnny Carson is seen here with four “Carson Cuties.” The star found himself unlucky in love until he met his fourth wife. (Arthur Schatz/Getty Images)
“Oddly though, his second and third wives remained close to him – Joanne and Joanna,” Thomas told Fox News Digital. “His third wife became a sounding board for him towards the end of his life. But they were always there. Make of that what you will.”
Carson married for the fourth and final time to Alexis Maas in 1987. The union lasted until his death in 2005.
“It seems like his last marriage to Alexis was the most placid,” said Thomas. “She let Johnny be Johnny… He was an older guy by then too. He retired five years after they married. And so, of course, he didn’t have the pressures of ‘The Tonight Show.’ As a result, he was likely, at least, a different person than he had been when he was working.”
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Johnny Carson and wife Alexis visiting London, circa 1991. (Tom Wargacki/WireImage/Getty Images)
“People said they saw a lightness in him when she came into his life,” said Thomas. “It was probably the least fraught of his relationships from what I’ve gathered.”
But the light in Carson’s life was dimmed in 1991. His son, Richard Carson, died in a car accident. He was 39.
“Johnny lamented the fact that he was not much closer to his sons,” said Thomas. “He was married to ‘The Tonight Show.’ That was his life. I don’t think he knew how to be a father the way he wanted to be a father or the way he thought he should be a father. But when Ricky died… he was never the same. He would grieve for Ricky to the end of his life.”
“He got back to work,” author Mike Thomas told Fox News Digital. “He always had that ethic despite personal tragedy.” (Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
“Johnny was not a guy who wore his heart on his sleeve or let his emotions out a lot,” said Thomas. “But he did a five-minute eulogy for Ricky on the show… You could see it impacted him deeply.”
“I think Ricky made him very emotional because, according to Carson himself, and according to other people who knew them both, they were very much alike in their sensibilities and their sense of humor,” Thomas shared.
Carson did cut down on his drinking. And his retirement years were a positive time in his life, where he found support in his closest confidantes.
“Johnny Carson is the blueprint,” Mike Thomas told Fox News Digital. “Even for younger generations for whom Johnny is not necessarily front of mind, they’re watching all these other guys that came after Johnny. And Johnny reinvented the medium… Then came Letterman, Leno, Conan, Kimmel, Colbert and Fallon. And whether you know it consciously or not, vestiges of Johnny remain in all of them to varying degrees.” (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
“He would play poker with his pals like Steve Martin, Carl Reiner, a bunch of other guys,” said Thomas. “He would go to dinner at his favorite restaurants. He would hang out with his wife. He would go shopping in town. He would play tennis. He was on his yacht constantly – he had two yachts. He would work on his computer, email people and check up on the news from the high seas. He also went on safari in Africa. Life was pretty great – until he got sick.”
Carson died from emphysema. He was 79.
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“I hope readers will get a more nuanced view of who Johnny Carson was,” said Thomas. “Bill was both a fan and a master chronicler of larger-than-life celebrities, and he’s able to bring them down to Earth… Bill was a curious, empathetic guy, and he got people to open up to him, including Johnny and many of Johnny’s intimates who hadn’t talked before. They revealed who Johnny was and what made him tick.”
