David Letterman shared a rare personal revelation at The Atlantic Festival on Thursday, opening up about his wife of 16 years, Regina Lasko. The legendary late-night host revealed that Lasko has been battling Ménière’s disease. This chronic inner ear disorder can cause vertigo, hearing loss, and tinnitus — a health challenge that briefly pulled him away from one of his dreams.
Letterman Updates On His Wife’s Health
(ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)“She’s okay now, she’s stabilized,” Letterman said, before joking, “But geez, I resented that.” The late-night legend admitted that her health scare kept him from joining two of his close friends on a movie set.
Why Letterman Wanted to Join Wes Anderson’s Film
(Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)The 78-year-old explained that when he learned his pal Richard Ayoade was cast in Wes Anderson’s new ensemble “The Phoenician Scheme” alongside Bill Murray, he couldn’t resist asking Murray to get him in. “I said to Bill, ‘Can you talk to your buddy Wes, and get me in the movie?’” Letterman recalled. “I don’t want lines, I don’t want a dressing room. I just wanted to be that guy people look at and go, ‘Who is that?’”
Letterman admitted he dreamed of standing on set with both Ayoade and Murray. “In my dreams — me, Bill Murray, and Richard Ayoade — how can that not be a moment for the rest of your life?” he joked, noting that “this is how I get work these days.”
The Movie Went On Without Him
(Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)Although Letterman didn’t make the final cut of Anderson’s 12th feature, the comic crime caper featured an impressive cast, including Murray, Ayoade, Benicio del Toro, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Willem Dafoe, and Riz Ahmed.
Letterman, of course, is no stranger to cameos himself. Beyond his decades on The Late Show, he has appeared in everything from “Murphy Brown” and “The Nanny” to Seinfeld and the 1979 TV film “Fast Times.”
Letterman first met Regina Lasko in the 1980s, but the couple didn’t rush down the aisle. They dated for more than 20 years before finally tying the knot in 2009.
“I had avoided getting married pretty good for, like, 23 years, and I — honestly, whether this happened or not — I secretly felt that men who were married admired me … like I was the last of the real gunslingers,” Letterman once joked on the Late Show, per Reuters.
Before Lasko, the host had been married to his college sweetheart, Michelle Cook. Over the decades, Letterman and Lasko have shared major milestones. They welcomed their only child, son Harry, in 2003, wed in a surprise courthouse ceremony in 2009, and later celebrated the conclusion of Letterman’s 22-season run on The Late Show in 2015.
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