Joan Rivers’ daughter is setting the record straight about the iconic late comedian.
On the new episode of the “Behind the Velvet Rope” podcast, host David Yonted welcomes guest Melissa Rivers, to talk about her mother, the “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” controversy and more.
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On the show, Yontef asked whether rumours were true that Joan had a longtime feud with Ellen DeGeneres.
“No, they didn’t,” Melissa said. “You know, my mother thought she was very funny. My mother thought she was a really good talk show host. There was never any animosity, but you know not everybody in Hollywood is friends. But there was nothing bad.”
She continued, “And when I did ‘Ellen’ promoting my first book, she was lovely to me. She told me how much my mom meant to her because my mother was one of the first people to come out and support her when she came out. And she remembers that. She brought it up to me. She’s like, ‘Your mother was one of the first ones to back me up.'”
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Rumours about feuds weren’t the only controversy surrounding Joan, though. At one point on the show, Melissa talked about her issues with the series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, which she believes was directly inspired by her mother’s career in comedy.
“I’ve never watched an episode. And I have personal reasons that I’ve mentioned in other interviews, which is, I just wish—and I understand both sides, I’m sure they were worried because the world is so litigious—but I wish I had gotten a note saying, ‘Your mother was one of the inspirations for this, and we hope you enjoy it and here’s a T-shirt. Here’s a link to the first episode, to the pilot,’ you know?”
She went on, “The only person that’s thanked her in an acceptance speech for that show was Jane Lynch. And I was in tears and I sent her flowers the next day saying, ‘Thank you.'”
