Melissa Rivers, the daughter of the late Joan Rivers, spoke out recently about her father’s suicide for the first time.
In a new podcast, Life After Suicide with Dr. Jennifer Ashton, Rivers, 51, discussed the aftermath of her father, Edgar Rosenberg’s death in 1987.
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The suicide left Rivers angry at everyone, even if it didn’t make rational sense.
“I was angry at my mom. I was angry at my dad. I was angry at the UPS worker,” Rivers said in a preview of her interview, which is set to premiere May 1, published by the Daily Mail. “I used to call it like this free-floating sort of anger.”
She added that her mom, Joan Rivers, learned in the immediate aftermath of Rosenberg’s death that she and Melissa were left with nothing, due to her husband’s dire financial situation. The film producer had also burned through the Fashion Police commentator’s income.
She said her father’s suicide made her feel like an outcast.
“Oh my God you feel like you have a big giant stamp on you,” she recalled. “Nobody knows what to say, nobody knows how to address you, nobody knows what’s okay to bring up. You feel so alone.”
Dr. Ashton, who lost her husband of 22 years to suicide, offered advice from her own experience. “I had to learn quickly how to keep living,” she said, “for myself and my two children.”
Joan Rivers died after a minor August 2014 throat procedure at an outpatient clinic in Manhattan. After she stopped breathing, she was resuscitated, transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital and later put on life support. She died in September 2014, having never woken up from a medically induced coma. The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office said she died from brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen.
Melissa Rivers filed a malpractice lawsuit against the clinic and doctors who performed surgery on her mother. The suit was settled for an undisclosed amount in May 2016, with the docks accepting responsibility.
If you or someone you know are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741-741.
Photo credit: D Dipasupil / Contributor / Getty
