Melissa Rivers reveals ‘very hard’ relationship with mom Joan after her dad’s 1987 suicide: ‘It took time’

Melissa Rivers revealed Saturday that her relationship with her mom — late comedic icon Joan Rivers — was “very hard” after her father’s 1987 suicide.

Now, in a conversation with PEOPLE, Melissa says the family faced unspeakable grief afterward — and her relationship with her mom was torn apart.

“Suicide is very complicated for the people who survive it,” Rivers, 56, told People of the fractured relationship she had with her mother.

“It was very painful. It was very hard.”

Joan told People in 1993 that Melissa blamed her when Edgar Rosenberg, her husband of 22 years, took his own life by overdosing on prescription pills after suffering from clinical depression since he had a heart attack in 1984, according to the magazine.

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“We tried to go on with our own lives, but we were both so broken that we couldn’t help each other,” the “Fashion Police” star told the magazine at the time.

But after sufficient time and therapy, the two women found their way back to each other.

“It took therapy. It took time,” Melissa revealed. “I went into a full crisis situation where I ended up in an abusive relationship, and when I called her for help, she came through. It took another major crisis for us to heal from the other crisis.”

The pair used their pain to help end the stigma of suicide for survivors.

“We really threw ourselves into lending our name to suicide prevention,” Melissa explained. “At the time, suicide was still not something that was discussed. We’re talking 1987, when people thought it was still shameful or thought that it ran in families. Nobody would know what to say to you.”

The two would later co-star on fan-favorite “Fashion Police.”

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Rivers, known for her brash, no-holds-barred comedy, later mentioned Melissa and paid tribute to Rosenberg in her 1990 acceptance speech when she won a Daytime Emmy for outstanding talk show host.

“To my daughter, Melissa, because the last two years have been very difficult,” Joan began. “Two years ago, I couldn’t get a job in this business. I could not get a job. My income dropped to 1/16th of what it was before I was fired. And people said I wouldn’t work again.

“And my husband, as you know, had a breakdown, and it’s so sad that he’s not here, because as my husband Edgar Rosenberg always said, ‘You can turn things around.’ Except one terrible moment in a hotel room in Philadelphia, when he forgot that. This is really for him, because he was with me from the beginning and I’m so sorry he’s not here now.”

Melissa continues to work on suicide prevention and is the co-chair of the Didi Hirsch Health Mental Services, she told People.

“I spent a good amount of my time working to de-stigmatizing it,” she said. “And I am always available for people when they go through it. I’m really honest about it: It sucks.”

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“… I go, here’s the honest part, it sucks. There’s nothing good about this right now. It’s going to suck for a while, and you’re going to get through it.”

Melissa told People in January that Joan would despise today’s cancel culture — but would love weight loss drugs like Ozempic.

“She would have been very excited by body acceptance. That would have actually made her really happy,” she said.

“She would have thought Ozempic was the greatest thing since sliced bread,” Melissa joked. “Her two least favorite things were diet and exercise, so if she could find a way to avoid both? Awesome.”

Joan died in 2014 at the age of 81 , after complications from a routine throat procedure.

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org .

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