“He’s a comic — you do what you gotta do,” Leno said of the tense 2010 incident. “I mean, I wouldn’t have done it, but that’s okay.”

Jay Leno is taking the blame for the incident that began his long-running feud with Jimmy Kimmel.

The comedian explained why he opted not to cut the infamous 2010 moment when Kimmel took several digs at him during his Wednesday appearance on In Depth With Graham Bensinger.

“When Kimmel came on my show and humiliated me on my own show, I let it happen. I didn’t edit it,” Leno told Bensinger.  “It was my mistake, I trusted somebody. I went, ‘Ah, I made a mistake. Okay, I should pay the price.’ And it’s fine, it’s fine. I mean, we could’ve edited it out of the show.”

Bensinger then asked, “Why didn’t you?”

“Because it happened,” Leno replied. “It’s real — it happened. It’s my mistake. That’s how you learn.”

When Bensinger pointed out that at the very least the incident and resulting tension between them made for “good TV,” Leno disagreed.

“It’s not good TV for me because it started a whole thing that continues to this day, really,” he said. “But it’s okay, it’s alright. He’s a comic — you do what you gotta do. I mean, I wouldn’t have done it, but that’s okay. That’s alright. It is what it is.”

Justin Lubin/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty

Back in 2010, Kimmel appeared on Leno’s late-night show and dragged him for his part in a Tonight Show conflict the year before in which Leno handed the reins over to Conan O’Brien, only to launch the ill-fated Jay Leno Show in an earlier time slot, and eventually take back the show when O’Brien refused to be bumped to a later slot.

At the time, Kimmel was one of O’Brien’s most vocal supporters, and when he appeared on Leno’s show he didn’t waste the opportunity to prove it. During their interview, Leno asked Kimmel about the best prank he ever pulled, and Kimmel replied, “I told a guy that five years from now I’m going to give you my show, and then when the five years came, I gave it to him, and then I took it back almost instantly.”

Jay Leno.Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty

Leno isn’t the only one rehashing the decade-old feud. During Ben Affleck’s Wednesday night visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live, the host roasted the actor for unwittingly inviting him and Leno to the same party, seeming to be oblivious to their public feud.

Kimmel began the conversation by telling Affleck to stop eyeing him suspiciously, assuring him that he had no unpleasant surprises to worry about.

“There’s nothing I’m gonna do,” Kimmel began. “It’s not gonna be like when I came to your house for Christmas and I walk in the door and then Jay Leno walks right in after me and then we’re both uncomfortably making small talk with you and you go, ‘Oh yeah, you both have some thing with each other?’ and then I had to stay in there.”

Affleck responded cheekily, “Believe it or not, I didn’t follow the nuance of your gossip history.”

“No, you just dropped a grenade right on us,” replied Kimmel.

Affleck then recalled their awkward interaction, joking, “It was like, ‘This is painful enough. What’s weird? Is something weird? Have you guys been insulting each other publicly for decades?”

Indeed, the Leno-Kimmel feud lived on well past that uncomfortable 2010 segment. Leno later told Oprah Winfrey that he felt “sucker-punched” by Kimmel’s jokes. Meanwhile, Kimmel kept them coming for him, at one point helming an entire episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live while dressed as Leno and parodying him.

In 2017, Kimmel told The Hollywood Reporter that the comedians had put their differences behind them after his newborn son underwent open-heart surgery. “Jay and I have made peace,” Kimmel said. “After my son had his operation, he called me and he was very nice.”

But that hasn’t stopped Kimmel from continuing to poke fun at Leno. Following O’Brien’s successful stint hosting the 2025 Oscars, Kimmel joked, “Conan did such a good job, the Oscars announced that next year they’re giving it to Jay Leno to host.”