“Johnny Carson was a great star but the saddest guy”: Henry Bushkin

New York, Nov 03: Late American television host Johnny Carson’s longtime lawyer, Henry Bushkin, has revealed that the comedian’s life was full of misery. Bushkin revealed that the “Tonight Show” host was a sad, depressed man who cheated on his wives, was tormented by his mom, and who refused to visit his son in a mental hospital.

“He was a great star, but not a great man,” the New York Post quoted Bushkin, who had jokingly been dubbed as “Bombastic Bushkin” by Carson, as saying. “Many great comedians were miserable human beings . . . Johnny suffered a great many demons brought about by what I call a toxic sort of mother. “His mother couldn`t give a compliment. He`s the biggest star in the world and she couldn`t even acknowledge it,” he said. Carson even refused to visit his son, Rick, when he was committed to Bellevue with severe emotional problems. “The kid was there for 4½ months and he never went. I had to take care of everything and was there almost every day. Rick [who died in a car crash in 1991] was a lovely human being,” Bushkin revealed. And later on Carson abandoned many of his closest friends, including Bushkin. “At one time we did everything together. At the end, he treated me like everybody else - like I didn`t exist. At the end, it was like I was an irritant. In many respects, he was the saddest guy I ever knew,” he added. ANI