Jay Leno has denied rumours that he has a gambling debt and he is “being beaten up by the mob”.

It comes after the former Tonight Show host was recently seen wearing an eye patch following an incident which left him with a black eye, bruised face and bandaged wrist.

According to Leno, at the time, he fell after walking down a hill to a restaurant near his hotel.

In recent years, he also suffered third-degree burns in a garage fire in 2022. Leno explained at the time the accident happened while working on the undercarriage of a 1907 White Motor Co steam car with his long-time friend Dave Killackey.

Just months after the incident, Leno also broke his collarbone, two ribs and cracked his kneecaps in a motorcycle accident.

Now, in a new interview with Bill Maher on his Club Random podcast, Maher referred to a series of claims in The Inquirer. He asked: “It’s a conspiracy theory since you’ve had three accidents that you actually have gambling debts and you’re being beaten up by the mob.”

Leno denied the claims and said: “I love the idea that the mob would drive to Greenberg, Pennsylvania, wait outside the Hampton Inn on a kind of sleety, rainy day to throw me down a hill.”

Maher then clarified that, the hill incident was just a “cover story,” and that “they just beat you like the mob always does.” He also referenced Leno’s motorcyle accident.

“What happened was, the guy had a rope across his driveway and it cut me,” Leno explained, referring to the latter

“I got a new face when my face caught fire, and two months later [the motorcycle accident] tore my face, I had to call my face guy, ‘I need another face.’”

He also said that if he owed money to the mafia: “I like the idea that they wouldn’t just take one of my cars to pay the gambling debt.”