For Melissa Rivers, writing her book about her beloved late mother, Joan Rivers, was as cathartic as it was challenging.
During a guest appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Melissa explained how The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief and Manipulation came about after the tragic passing of her mom last September.
"It was tough, but my mother, she always had this joke that she wanted to write a book with me before she died called Comedian Dearest. So I wanted to write something that would make me laugh, that would make her laugh and that would make her fans laugh. And I think I set the tone with the dedication which is, 'For my mother whom I think about every day and to my father who as of this past September is no longer resting in peace.' That sets the tone, but it was cathartic. I wanted to call it, Cheaper Than Therapy!"
Melissa also opened up to Ellen DeGeneres about how her teenage son, Cooper, is coping with the loss of his grandmother.
"He's 14 now and it was a big, big blow to him. But you know, he's a teenager so sometimes he actually looks up from the phone and I see his eyes and I can see if he's happy."
She also shared how seriously Joan took her grandma duties, saying, "It's so funny because when I was growing up my parents would come to every game, and it turns out my mother used to actually be asleep behind her sunglasses and never learned anything about sports."
"And with Cooper, she would actually like [it]. She had her chair that she would carry to the game and to the practices and she would actually stay away and sometimes she even knew which team scored. She really loved him."
(E! and NBC are both part of the same NBCUniversal family.)