Joan and Melissa Rivers had a mother-daughter relationship for the ages. In February 2011, the late star and her daughter graced Us Weekly‘s New York City offices with a visit, showing their sweet relationship and hilarious banter.
The beloved, hilarious comedienne, who passed away on Thursday, Sept. 4 at the age of 81, stopped by a few years back to promote her reality show Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?, dish about her favorite (and least favorite) celebs, and open up about her own life with her daughter.
Celebrated for her hilarious sense of humor and candid conversations, Joan spoke about raising her daughter Melissa, now 46, in the spotlight. “Truly, we know, when you raise a child as I raised Melissa, in that environment, it goes back to what happens in the home,” she said. “It’s not what happens on the set.”
Melissa and Joan also touched on a tough moment in their relationship, which was documented in Joan Knows Best.
“We had a really big fight,” Melissa said. “A really, really — I’m gonna say it was a top five fight in our relationship, in our lives… the fight was about everything and nothing. It’s that the parent feels that it is their duty to point out everything that they think their child is doing wrong, or mistakes that they think are being made. From the child’s point of view, it’s the feeling of constantly being criticized and constantly feeling like you can’t do anything right.”
Melissa released a statement after her mother’s death, thanking supporters for their love during Joan’s battle, and saying, “My mother’s greatest joy in life was to make people laugh. Although that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon.”
Joan’s famous sense of humor was on display during her visit with Us.
“All celebrities think we all know each other,” she said. “You automatically think you know them cause you’ve seen them on the screen. I was doing the red carpet about three years ago, and Leonardo DiCaprio came up to me and we kissed! ‘Oh my goodness, how good to see you,’ and then we both said on camera, ‘We don’t know each other!’ We laughed because both of us had the same reaction.”
Joan and Melissa also jibed Jennifer Aniston (“so tired of her!”) and Demi Moore with their trademark humor, and detailed a hilarious encounter with Nicole Richie.
Watch the late Joan and her daughter Melissa in the video above.
