Jay Leno has addressed persistent rumours he’s being harmed by the Mob after recently suffering a string of injuries.

Earlier this month, the 74-year-old former Tonight Show host appeared on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, which saw Maher, 68, ask Leno about the conspiracy theory his three recent accidents actually occurred due to gambling debts.

“Well, I like the idea that they wouldn’t just take one of my cars for the gambling debt,” Leno quipped in a nod to his notoriously 200-strong rare car collection worth multiple millions of dollars.

Watch the video above.

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The comedian, however, then got serious, being sure to emphasise he does not have any personal affiliation with the mob – a colloquial term for the American mafia – while also sharing a story about his brief run-in with a mafioso during the early days of his career.

”I was pretty smart,” Leno told Maher in the 80-minute interview.

“I remember years ago, I was at Catch a Rising Star [a chain of comedy clubs founded in New York City], and I was onstage, and this guy – a mob guy – comes up to me afterwards and he goes, ‘Hey, you’re a funny kid. You’re a funny kid’.”

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Leno then claimed the mafioso put $US100 (approx. $161) in his pocket, which he thanked him for but ultimately refused.

“I say, ‘Look, I don’t mean any disrespect, but, you know, give it to the church or something… I’m OK, but thank you’,” Leno recalled.

“And he says to me, ‘You know, you’re a smart kid. You don’t take money from people like me. That’s smart’. And nobody ever bothered me again.”

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Leno did, however, note that while he has never had any trouble with the mob personally, he also allegedly used to see members of the mob ”kick the crap out of comics left and right” for being “wise a–es” during their sets on stage.

He then addressed the gambling part of the conspiracy theory, emphasising that he doesn’t like gambling, so even if he was getting beat up by the mob every few months, it wouldn’t be over that.

”I don’t gamble,” Leno insisted.

“Losing 100 bucks makes me feel stupider than winning one thousand makes me feel good. Because I go, ‘I could have taken my wife to dinner’,” he said.

Leno, who has been married to Mavis Leno, 78, since 1980, was seen stepping out with severe bruising on his face in November, sparking concern.

At the time, Leno spoke with Inside Edition reporters in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, saying he was “black and blue” after falling down an 18-metre hill on his way out for dinner.

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Showing off his injuries to the cameras gathered outside his gig, Leno revealed he broke his wrist, lost a fingernail and was bruised on the left side of his body, as well as his face.

He also lifted up his patch to reveal his eye had been swollen shut.

In a separate interview with TMZ, he said he didn’t have a car on the night of the incident, so he decided to use a shortcut down a hill on his walk home instead.

”The hill doesn’t look that steep – about 60, 70 feet. Let me see if I can down there… [he screams] and then I fell down, boom, boom, boom,” Leno told the outlet.

Leno said he “hit a bunch of rocks” but that did not stop him from going on to perform just three hours later.

“It isn’t a big deal, it’s alright,” he reassured the outlet.

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It came two years after he suffered severe burns to his face and body as a result of a fire in his home garage.

Months after that, he broke his collarbone and two ribs and cracked both kneecaps in a motorbike collision.

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