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