After his decision to leave late-night television, Letterman and wife, Regina Lasko, moved back to Indiana
Life away from show business
In 1999, television host David Letterman bought a 2,700-acre ranch in Montana. Letterman, now 79, was born and raised in Indianapolis. He left Indiana in 1975, when he was in his late 20s, to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. He later became one of American television’s best-known late-night hosts, spending much of his career in New York before stepping away from his long-running show in 2015. In a 2024 interview with GQ, Letterman spoke about the difference between his life in show business and his life in Indiana. “All I cared about was television, one hour of television that I was responsible for, for 30 years.
The ranch is one of several properties owned by Letterman, who has spoken openly about moving away from the pressures and lifestyle associated with show business, according to Realtor. After his decision to leave late-night television, Letterman and wife, Regina Lasko, moved back to Indiana, where he said he felt more comfortable being himself. He said returning to his home state had helped him reconnect with a broader part of life outside television. Letterman also said that his priorities had changed after leaving his late-night show. It was all single-minded and great pressure, real unimagined, and I felt like it’s all on me and it’s all on me, and that it was all nonsense,” he said. He has said that during his years in television, his attention was focused almost entirely on his programme and the demands that came with it. That’s all I cared about,” he said.
He has described his years in show business as a period when he felt he had been pretending to be someone he was not. “I just feel like, personally, I have greater humanity than I did when I was in show business. His return to Indiana has been part of a wider change in how he views his life. “Everything fell apart, went away. I didn’t even know if it was falling apart or not. And now I have the energy and the broader focus to recognize humanity has other fulfilling pursuits.”
