By admin 
Johnny Carson presented a confident, quick-witted personality on “The Tonight Show,” but his personal life wasn’t as smooth. He had three marriages that ended in divorce and were marred by problems with alcohol.
The late night host’s first marriage to Jody Wolcott was volatile and marked by infidelity by both parties.
“There would be plenty of drunken fights — some in front of other couples — or long silent stews of resentment, accusations or shame,” Bill Zehme writes with Mike Thomas in the biography “Carson the Magnificient.” Alcohol (although hardly a constant in their early years) was a friend to neither man nor woman; when lit, they both reacted very poorly.
Carson’s career and personal life are dissected in the biography “Carson the Magnificent.” Carson’s first marriage was to Jody Wolcott. Getty Images The couple shared three sons. Getty Images According to a new biography, Carson was mean when he got drunk and insulted Jody. Getty Images
Zehme writes that Jody, who had three sons with Carson, “reportedly danced on table tops at parties, exuded mocking and biting sarcasm,” and flirted recklessly with men, driving her husband crazy.
And when Carson was sufficiently ‘lubricated’, his inner demons would rage, and whoever he had been just moments before would immediately be displaced by an unrecognizable hell…
“Occasionally he would wake up the next day and find that such devastation had bruised the flesh of the mother of his sons.”
Carson’s second marriage was to model Joanne Copeland. Getty Images Joanne also complained about Carson’s personality change after he drank. Bettmann Archive Joanne complained that Carson “had a low tolerance (for alcohol). He had blackouts.” The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
The couple divorced in 1963 and Carson married Joanne Copeland the same year.
Joanne also complained about Carson’s Jekyll and Hyde personality once he started absorbing it.
“I was married to two different people,” she remembers. “He became a tiger. He went and drank beer for a while, thinking it wouldn’t happen and that it was just as bad. It made no difference. He had a low tolerance. He had blackouts.”
Joanne remembered Carson coming home and ripping off the sheets while she was sleeping.
“He said, ‘I work really hard and you sleep in bed.’ This is three o’clock in the morning. I was dealing with two people. He had enormous anger about women coming out.”
The NBC star married Joanna Copeland in 1972. Getty Images Carson’s fourth marriage was to Alex Maas. Getty Images
Joanne noted that Carson was always incredibly remorseful the next morning and vowed never to drink again, but the cycle would resume weeks later.
He and Joanne divorced in 1972 and the NBC star married model Joanna Holland the same year.
The two remained married until Carson’s death. Newsday RM via Getty Images Carson mused, “I discovered I just didn’t drink well,” in a 1979 interview. Getty Images The beloved television personality was arrested for drunken driving in 1982. NBCUniversal via Getty Images
During a 1979 “Sixty Minutes” interview, Carson admitted that he had a negative reaction to drinking.
“I found out I just wasn’t drinking well,” he told Mike Wallace. ‘And if I was drinking – instead of lots of people getting happy and sociable and loving everyone – I would do exactly the opposite. And it would just happen!”
Joanna confirmed Carson’s self-assessment.
“It got to a point in our marriage where, when we were away, I saw this: going out with one person and coming home with someone with a completely different temperament,” she told Wallace. “And it got harder.”
Carson hosted “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” for 30 years. NBCUniversal via Getty Images
In an interview decades later, Joanna was more candid.
“During that black drunk phase I was scared,” she said. ‘Sometimes anything could throw him off. Those were the scary times.”
In October 1982, Carson pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of driving over the legal limit. He was fined and placed on probation for three years.
He and Joanna eventually divorced in 1985, with Joanna receiving a generous settlement that included two million dollars in cash, luxury cars, a house in Bel-Air, a New York apartment and a Picasso, all worth more than $20 million.
Carson’s last marriage was to Alex Maas in 1987. She was at least twenty years younger than him. The two remained married until his death from emphysema in 2005 at the age of 79.