Before becoming a household name as a pillar of late-night television, Johnny married Joan “Jody” Morrill Wolcott in 1949 after they met as students at the University of Nebraska. The pair welcomed three sons and split in 1963<\/a>.<\/p>\n The year after Johnny took on the mantle of <\/a>The Tonight Show<\/a> in 1962, he met and married model and TV host Joanne Carson (n\u00e9e Copeland), who encouraged him to pursue the host role full-time. She and Johnny divorced in 1972.<\/p>\n The comedian married model Joanna Carson (n\u00e9e Holland) that same year, and the pair lived together in New York with her son until\u00a0The Tonight Show\u2019s move to California placed a strain on their marriage. Johnny and Joanna split in 1985, and she died in July 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I had given as much to marriage as I gave to The Tonight Show, I\u2019d probably have a hell of a marriage<\/a>,\u201d he once said, per PEOPLE.<\/p>\n Johnny married his fourth and final wife, Alexis Maas, in 1987. Producer George Schlatter told PEOPLE in 2005 that “the real love of [Johnny’s] life was Alex.”<\/p>\n He retired from The Tonight Show in May 1992 and lived quietly with Alexis until his death in 2005 from emphysema at the age of 79.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a look back at Johnny Carson\u2019s four wives.<\/p>\n Joan “Jody” Morrill Wolcott Hulton Archive\/Getty<\/p>\n Johnny Carson and his first wife, Jody Wolcott, pose with their sons Christopher, Richard and Cory at their home in California.<\/p>\n Johnny married Jody on Oct. 3, 1949, according to their wedding announcement in The Lincoln Star<\/a>. The couple met at the University of Nebraska where she was a member of the Phi Beta Phi sorority.<\/p>\n Johnny and Jody welcomed three children together during their relationship: Richard, Christopher and Cory.<\/p>\n In the 2024 biography Carson the Magnificent, authors Bill Zehme and Mike Thomas claimed that Johnny’s marriage to Jody was tumultuous. \u201cThere would be boozy rows aplenty \u2014 some in front of other couples \u2014 or long silent stews of resentment or recrimination or shame,” they wrote, per Fox News<\/a>.<\/p>\n Johnny and Jody divorced in 1963, after 14 years of marriage, following his appointment as host of The Tonight Show in October 1962 and subsequent rise to fame.<\/p>\n The couple\u2019s child, photographer Richard, died on June 24, 1991, at the age of 39, following a car accident in California, according to The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Joanne Carson Hyman Rothman\/NY Daily News Archive via Getty<\/p>\n Johnny Carson and Joanne Copeland toast each other after their surprise wedding.<\/p>\n Johnny and Joanne married in 1963.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 Joanne told\u00a0The New York Times<\/a>\u00a0that her father first met Johnny in a jazz club and attempted to set the two up.<\/p>\n At first, Joanne was skeptical that they could make a relationship work as she was a television host in her own right for a different network. According to The New York Times<\/a>, she first hosted an early 1960s game show called Video Village. When he tried to set them up, she told her father, \u201cHe\u2019s daytime on ABC? I work for CBS. I don\u2019t associate with people on daytime TV.\u201d However, it wasn\u2019t long before the pair became inseparable.<\/p>\n Johnny and Joanne began their courtship at the same time he was beginning his tenure on The Tonight Show. Joanne loved Johnny’s first tapes when he was standing in as host and encouraged him to take on the position full-time.<\/p>\n In a 2007 interview with The New York Times, she recalled Johnny’s misgivings about taking on his most famed role. \u201cHe said, \u2018It frightens me to take it, because I think I might lose you,\u2019 \u201d said Joanne. \u201cI said: \u2018Are you crazy? You couldn\u2019t lose me if you tried.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n However, Joanne did eventually credit the show with playing a part in ending their marriage. She claimed to The New York Times that Johnny expected her to act as a conduit between him and the staff. \u201cI took the brunt of everything,\u201d she said. Joanne was also quoted in Carson the Magnificent speaking about Johnny’s struggles with alcohol.<\/p>\n The pair divorced in 1972 and Joanne later recalled Johnny joking about their separation. \u201cAfter our divorce he said, \u2018She left me with a hassock and a hair net,\u2019 \u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m going to remember that forever.\u201d<\/p>\n The former CBS host left the marriage with something much more valuable, though: the first recordings of him standing in as the host of The Tonight Show, the tapes that Joanne had fallen in love with a decade prior.<\/p>\n In 2007, two years after Johnny’s death, Joanne found the tapes and released them as the Johnny Carson Show on DVD allowing audiences a peek into Johnny’s early years while he workshopped the hosting format that would go on to define American late-night television.<\/p>\n After their split, Joanne became the host of her own syndicated show, Joanne Carson\u2019s V.I.P.\u2019s. She also pursued further education, earning a master\u2019s degree in psychology and a doctorate in nutritional biochemistry and physiology. She went on to marry and divorce Richard Rever, and had a very close friendship with the author Truman Capote. Joanne was portrayed by Molly Ringwald<\/a> in FX\u2019s 2024 series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans<\/a>.<\/p>\n She later told PEOPLE that Johnny remained true to his roots, being \u201ca little boy from the Midwest with impeccable manners.\u201d Following Johnny’s death on Jan. 23, 2005, Joanne described her feelings about his loss. \u201cThe pain of this is to the bone. To the bone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Joanne spent her later years as a holistic therapist and died on May 8, 2015.<\/p>\n Joanna Carson Ron Galella Collection via Getty<\/p>\n Joanna Holland and Johnny Carson.<\/p>\n Johnny and Joanna married in 1972, the same year that he and Joanne divorced.<\/p>\n The pair met in 1971 at the 21 Club in New York, where he later recalled to PEOPLE he was “flirting like a sophomore<\/a>.\u201d Joanna was one of New York\u2019s 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. Joanna and Johnny spent their first date celebrating his 46th birthday, after which, he proceeded to call her every day at 4:30 p.m. for a year.<\/p>\n But the pair ran into trouble when The Tonight Show was moved from New York to California. Joanna was a die-hard New Yorker and didn\u2019t want to make the move, but Johnny allegedly demanded it. \u201cYou\u2019re coming to California with Tim, and we\u2019re going to be married,” she recalled him saying.<\/p>\n The pair moved to Burbank, Calif., where they threw dinner parties and screenings with a close-knit group of friends. Joanna didn\u2019t have the keen interest in Johnny’s work that Joanne had. \u201cI don\u2019t have that much to say about Johnny\u2019s work,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not my place.”<\/p>\n However, she, too, claimed to have experienced the effects of Johnny’s tumultuous relationship with alcohol. Joanna spoke about Johnny’s drinking in the biography Carson the Magnificent.<\/p>\n In a 1979 interview with 60 Minutes, Johnny admitted to his temper when drinking. “And when I did drink \u2014 rather than a lot of people who become fun-loving, gregarious, and love everybody \u2014 I would go just the opposite,” he said. “And it would happen just like that!”<\/p>\n The couple divorced in 1985.<\/p>\n![\"Hulton](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/c2df212fc8c0b8c684474a8b68eb02e8.jpeg\"\/)
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