Melissa Rivers on “Fashion Police” and Kathy Griffin: “She kind of s**t all over my mother’s legacy”

Melissa Rivers is no longer remaining silent about the implosion Fashion Police suffered as it tried to stay on the air after the death of her mother, Joan Rivers.

Rivers, who continued to executive produce the show with Kathy Griffin taking over for her mother, is critical of how Griffin quit the show abruptly after less than three months on the job.

“My biggest complaint was the feeling that she kind of shit all over my mother’s legacy in her statement on leaving,” Rivers told Hoda Kotb Wednesday night in New York.

Griffin stated when she quit that she did not want her comedy ‘to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance towards difference. … I discovered that my style does not fit with the creative direction of the show.’

Rivers now says: ‘It was like, I understand what you were doing, you’re trying to save yourself, but don’t crap all over my mother to do it.’

Of Griffin taking over for her mother in the first place Rivers says: ‘It wasn’t a match, on a lot of levels.’

The show had stopped production last fall when Joan Rivers unexpectedly died shortly after the Emmy Awards edition aired. Production resumed in January with a Golden Globes edition with new panelists Griffin and Brad Goreski joining returnees Giuliana Rancic and Kelly Osbourne.

Rancic got into hot water when a joke written for her about actress Zendaya’s dreadlocks. She said they made the Disney star look as if she smelled ‘like patchouli oil’ or ‘weed.’

Rancic apologized on the air and it was later revealed that editing took the joke out of context and make Rancic look even worse. Osbourne, who had been outraged by the Zendaya incident, quit the show after five years as a panelist.

Says Rivers of the tumult: ‘It was a very, very difficult time, I had a lot of conversations with everybody involved … It really shows that we were a family. We went back too fast, and when the matriarch died the sisters started fighting.’

It’s been difficult for Rivers to watch because Fashion Police had been a major success that she shared with her mother.

“I felt like ‘Fashion Police’ was this little jewel, and it was the last piece I had of my mother and I working together. I felt like all these people were so out of control.

‘They took the last thing I had and smashed it. I felt like I was Humpty Dumpty and I was on my knees gluing it back together.’

The show is being revamped and is expected to return in the fall with Rivers continuing on as executive producer.

The conversation with Kotb is below with Rivers’ comments about Griffin at the 20:24 mark.