Melissa Rivers finally opened up in her first extended interview since the sudden death of her mother, legendary comedian Joan Rivers. While speaking with the Today Show’s Matt Lauer, Melissa said that she believes her mother’s death was preventable.
Rivers died on Sept. 4 after she went to the Yorkville Endoscopy clinic in Manhattan for a minor throat procedure. She stopped breathing during the procedure and went into cardiac arrest. In January, Melissa filed a malpractice lawsuit against the clinic, claiming that the doctors were “reckless, grossly negligent and wanton” during the procedure.
“In my opinion, it was 100 percent preventable,” Melissa told Lauer in the first segment of the interview that aired last week.
More segments of the interview were aired Monday morning, with Melissa explaining how the last moments with her famous mother went.
“I slept on the cot next to my mother's bed that night with some of the lights still on and the TV blasting, just the way she liked it,” the former Fashion Police co-host told Lauer, as she read a portion from her memoir, The Book of Joan. “In the morning, when it was time to remove the ventilator, she was surrounded by those who loved her most and whom she loved most. I lay in the bed and held her for a while. And after a few hours, she was finally gone. I didn't have to tell her I loved her. She knew. She didn't have to tell me she loved me. I knew.”
Melissa also talked about her working relationship with her mom, as they also did Celebrity Apprentice, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? and other shows together. There might have been differences, but their working relationship was “pretty amazing.”
“I was the straight man. She was the funny one,” Melissa recalled. “I would set it up. She would hit it out of the park. If you come across a partnership like that once in your life, as a performer, you're lucky.”
The Book of Joan hits stores on Tuesday.
image of Melissa Rivers courtesy of INFphoto.com
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