Joanna Carson Wins $35,000 Monthly Support

Joanna Carson, who once demanded $220,000 a month in spousal support, was awarded $35,000 a month for 64 months Friday when her divorce from “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson was granted.

Retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lester E. Olson, who presided over a series of settlement conferences ending the vitriolic litigation as a $250-an-hour “rent-a-judge,” approved the couple’s 80-page marital settlement agreement dividing their multi-million-dollar community property.

Joanna, who married Carson on Sept. 10, 1972, had received $44,600 a month in support after their separation in November, 1982, although she claimed her expenses were several times that.

Under the property settlement, she will get the couple’s Bel-Air house, their Hotel Pierre, 5th Avenue and 62nd Street apartments in New York City, and their Rolls-Royce, a Mercedes-Benz and an economy car.

Carson will retain all stock in Carson Productions and Carson Tonight Inc., their Malibu house, the Trump Tower condominium in New York City, and eight other properties here and in Las Vegas and Arizona, and their 1939 Chrysler, two Mercedes and a station wagon.

They will split stocks, bank accounts, and proceeds from the sale of their membership in the Bel-Air Country Club. She got 75 of their gold krugerrands and he received 25.

In dividing up their art collection, she kept the Pablo Picasso “Home et Femme,” and he retained bronzes by Jacques Lipschitz.

Carson also kept a membership in the Beverly Hills Tennis Club.