NEWSJohnny Carson's 'Major Problems With Alcohol' Turned Him Into a 'Red-Hot Demon' Who Would 'Become Violent,' Author Claims
'The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson' aired from 1962-1992.
A dark side to Johnny Carson has been revealed in his new biography, Carson the Magnificent, which was 20 years in the making.
According to authors Bill Zehme and Mike Thomas, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson star — who died at age 79 in 2005 — struggled with alcohol abuse throughout his lifetime.
Johnny Carson's 'major problems with alcohol' greatly affected his marriages.
"He had major problems with alcohol, especially early on, that turned him into a demon," Thomas revealed in an interview about the book. "There are instances where he becomes violent, and he just turns on a dime, and it didn’t even take that much."
The book detailed his tumultuous relationship with his first wife, Jody Wolcott, who would allegedly flirt with other men to get a rise out of Carson.
"There would be boozy rows aplenty — some in front of other couples — or long silent stews of resentment or recrimination or shame," Zehme penned in the tell-all, noting "they both would act out, very badly" while drinking.
"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 added.
Johnny Carson died at age 79 in 2005.
The writer portrayed the person Carson became while under the influence as his “doppelgänger,” who would wreak havoc on those around him.
"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 … Who had seemed to be him… but it was never really him… except of course it was," Zehme said.
"Occasionally, he would wake the next day to discover that some such havoc had bruised the flesh of his sons’ mother," he 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."
Carson and Wolcott were married from 1949-1963 and shared three sons together. Both of them reportedly cheated on one another throughout their romance.
Johnny Carson's romantic issues allegedly stemmed from his 'rough relationship' with his mother.
Want OK! each day? Sign up here!
Thomas alleged Carson’s abuse stemmed from a deeply "rough relationship" with his mother.
"The psychology saying is, ‘If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother,’" Thomas shared. "She was… emotionally withholding. She never expressed pride in him and his relationship with her bled into his relationships with women."
In 1963, Carson tied the knot with his second wife, Joanne Copeland, who described his drinking as "a nightmare" in the book.
"I was married to two different people," Copeland was quoted in the work. "He became a tiger… He had a low tolerance. He had blackouts."
Copeland recalled Carson throwing fits when coming home after a night out.
"He’d say, ‘I’m working my a-- off, and you’re sleeping in bed,’" she stated. "This is three in the morning. I was dealing with two people. He had a tremendous anger about women that would come out."
'I was married to two different people,' Carson's second wife, Joanne Copeland, claimed.
Copeland shared that Carson would then wake up and apologize, often telling her, “’I don’t know what gets into me… I just can’t drink. I hate that I do this to you.’”
By 1972, the pair called it quits after multiple "mini-separations." Carson then quickly said “I do” to Joanna Holland, who was also affected by his alcohol issues.
Carson’s fourth marriage to Alexis Maas, from 1987-2005, was reportedly the least volatile.
"It seems like his last marriage to Alexis was the most placid," Thomas stated. "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."
"People said they saw a lightness in him when she came into his life," he added. "It was probably the least fraught of his relationships from what I’ve gathered."
Fox News Digital conducted the interview with Thomas and obtained passages from the book.
