Melissa Rivers Turned Down ‘Dancing with the Stars’ When Joan Rivers Died –’a Year Later, They Didn’t Want Me’
Never say never didn’t exactly happen for comedian and talk show host Melissa Rivers. Melissa was offered to join Dancing With the Stars when her mother, comedian Joan Rivers died. She turned down the opportunity but later wanted to join the dance competition show.
And they told her no thanks.
“They offered it to me years ago at a time that was not appropriate, which was right after my mom died,” she recalled on the Behind the Velvet Rope with David Yontef podcast.
“I did not think that should be my return to TV moment. So I passed,” she said. “I know the woman that casts it for years and she’s lovely. In her shoes, I would have made the same offer. That’s her job and I’ve never been asked since.”
“In hindsight, you’re like, I would have done it a year later. But a year later, they didn’t want me,” Melissa revealed. “So there you go. And I’m not a reality star. And from so many years ago, I am seriously not as flexible. Yeah. Nine years ago, I could still do the splits. Now probably not so much and my back would go out.”
Joan and Melissa Rivers wanted to do ‘Dancing With the Stars’ as a ‘team’
Before her death in 2014, Joan told Rumor Fix she wanted to do DWTS, but wanted to do it as a mother-daughter team. “She wanted us to do Dancing With the Stars and have us do it as a team,” Melissa clarified.
“Ah yes,” Joan agreed. “That way I could do the easy steps and Melissa could take over for the bends and that kind of stuff. The twirls and whirls. And they were just having none of it.”
Melissa grieved the loss of her mother for years
Melissa was ready to give DWTS after her mother’s death but continued to struggle with her mother’s sudden death. She told TODAY, that three afters after Joan died, she was still struggling.
“There are some days that it feels like 10 years and some days where it feels like yesterday. But that’s the normal grieving process,” he shared. “Everyone expects me to have this sort of elevated or heightened experience, and the truth is, and I say this all the time, grief is grief is grief. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the public eye or a private person, it goes at your own pace.”
Melissa’s son, Cooper also continued to miss Joan. “She was the one he went to when he was annoyed with me, so now as a 16-year-old boy, he would be on the phone all the time,” she said. “My mom says I’m much stricter with Cooper than she was with me, which is crazy because I spent a good part of high school grounded. She would tell me I’m a better parent than she was, and I don’t think I am. I think I’m just different.”
A new season of Dancing With the Stars is on Tuesday night on ABC and Disney+.
