An explosive new tell-all book from Johnny Carson's lawyer paints the late night legend as a jealous and emotional husband, after reportedly discovering an alleged affair between his second wife Joanne Copeland and NFL great Frank Gifford.
An excerpt from the book, "Johnny Carson" by Henry Bushkin, out on shelves October 15, recounts that Carson enlisted the help of his longtime lawyer to break and enter into Copeland's Manhattan apartment.
"'Henry,' Carson had said when we'd first met the day before, 'I have reason to believe my wife is cheating on me. I also have an idea who the son of a b---h is that she's shacking up with.'" Bushkin writes in the book, revealed by Entertainment Weekly.
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The lawyer writes that he offered to file for divorce on behalf of Carson, but the comedian resisted, instead wanting to go in to the apartment to "find evidence."
"My first reaction was to be appalled," he writes. "No way, I thought. Members of the bar do not break and enter apartments. I am an officer of the court."
But after persuading the doorman and building manager that Carson was paying for the apartment, they were permitted to continue.
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The lawyer details their findings at the apartment, including lingerie and items of men's clothing hanging in the bedroom.
Overcome by the amount of evidence of his wife's alleged infidelity, the "Tonight" host began to weep, according to Bushkin, in a way described as a "painfully uncomfortable moment."
"I realized that I was probably one of the very few people who had ever seen Johnny Carson cry," he writes.
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Bushkin also claimed that Carson was brandishing a ".38 revolver in a holster on his hip," though it's unclear whether or not the comedian planned to use it on his wife.
The comedian and his "Tonight Show" sidekick Ed McMahon went on a drinking binge, Bushkin recounts after the apartment break-in, where Carson joked about his wife's cheating and admits he "wasn't the best husband in the world."
"'Why Frank Gifford?'" Carson asked, according to Bushkin.
"'What's that a-hole got that I don't have?... That guy plays three positions on the field…I could never get Joanne to go for more than two.'"
Gifford is now married to "Today" host Kathie Lee Gifford. The couple wed in 1986, more than 15 years after the alleged affair with Carson's wife.
After a few drinks Bushkin writes the late night host left the bar with a leggy, brunette mystery celebrity who was "nearly as famous as Johnny was."
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