Beloved Tonight Show sidekick Ed McMahon took a heartbreaking secret to his grave, sources say.
Many people assumed that Ed and Johnny Carson were the closest of friends, on and off the show.
But a longtime friend of Carson’s told The ENQUIRER: "It killed Ed. It just crushed him that he and Johnny Carson were never close off the set. It was his constant heartache for all those years.
"He wanted so badly to be a personal pal of Johnny’s that, in his mind, he often tried to believe that he was. Ed often talked about how tight they were.
"But toward the end, they spoke only when Ed called to wish Johnny a happy birthday. Johnny never called Ed, never invited him to his home in Malibu."
McMahon – who passed away at age 86 on June 23 – was Carson’s second banana from 1962 until 1992. When Carson died of emphysema in 2005, McMahon said he was "like a brother to me," and recalled joking with him on the phone just a few months earlier.
"We could have gone on (television) that night and done a ‘Carnac’ skit. We were that crisp and hot," McMahon said.
But the source pointed out: "Ed would say that stuff all the time, and Johnny never contradicted him. He let Ed have his fantasy. But the honest truth is that Johnny and Ed hardly ever socialized when they weren’t working.
"They were two completely different types of people. Ed was this loud, boisterous type of guy, and Johnny was really rather shy, reserved and reclusive off camera.
"Ed’s oversized personality grated on Johnny, and he avoided him."
The late-night host saw McMahon only a handful of times after he retired.
"Johnny grumbled to one of his sons, ‘I can’t stand to be around the guy. He gets on my nerves,’" according to a Carson family insider.
