The well-known late comedian and former host of The Tonight Show for 30 years, Johnny Carson, had a darker side that was not publicly seen when cameras started rolling. In a new biography named Carson the Magnificent, Bill Zehme and Mike Thomas write about Carson's turbulent relationship with alcohol. This ultimately led to the end of his first three marriages, plagued with abuse of all types.
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Carson married Jody Morrill Wolcott in 1949. This first marriage was turbulent, to say the least, filled with alcohol-infused rage and infidelity. "There would be boozy rows aplenty — some in front of other couples — or long silent stews of resentment or recrimination or shame," the authors wrote, per Page Six. "Alcohol (while hardly a constant in their early years) was a friend to neither man nor wife; whenever lit, they would both act out, very badly."
While Carson would go into a "rampage" after drinking, Wolcott would flirt with other men to purposely drive his husband crazy. This would often end up in physical abuse on behalf of Carson, according to Zehme. "Occasionally he would wake the next day to discover that some such havoc had bruised the flesh of his sons' mother," he wrote.
Second Marriage
Eventually, Carson divorced Walcott in 1963. Without breaking a sweat, Carson married Joanne Copeland the very same year. However, as you might expect, things didn't change at all, and Carson continued his downward spiral with his drinking and his subsequent abuse.
Copeland recalls Carson finding her sleeping and waking her up out of the blue, berating her for doing so while he worked. "I was married to two different people," she said. "He became a tiger. He went over to beer for a while, thinking it wouldn't happen and it was just as bad."
On the very next day, similarly to his first marriage, Carson apologized and promised to quit drinking. This, however, didn't happen, repeating the vicious cycle multiple times until Carson's and Copeland's divorce in 1972.
Third Marriage, Same Old Mistakes
Some say the third time's the charm. Well, not for Carson, though, who married Joanna Holland in 1972. That's right, again, the very same year he divorced his previous wife. Holland, just like Copeland and Wolcott before her, had to suffer through Carson's issues with alcohol.
"It came to a point in our marriage where when we'd be out, I would see this — go out with one person and come home with somebody whose was completely different in temperament," Holland told Mike Wallace during an interview. "And it got more difficult." Years later, she would express feeling scared when Carson got drunk. Carson was even placed on three years probation after drunk driving.
Again, Johnny Carson went on to divorce Holland in 1985. He learned from his mistakes and waited for two years before marrying again. This time, though, he would stay married to Alexis Maas until he died in 2005.
